


Diamond in the Rough

by vulthuryol



Series: Diamonds in the Sky [1]
Category: Marathon (Video Games)
Genre: Alien Character(s), Artificial Intelligence, Blood and Violence, Cyborgs, Minor Character(s), Multi, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2018-08-30 16:38:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 82,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8540578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulthuryol/pseuds/vulthuryol
Summary: They say the sky is full of diamonds, but who chisels those gems out of the muddy earth? Who shines them? Cuts them into the perfect shape? And when the diamonds finally take their place among the stars, was it really worth it?
It may take a while before an A.I. has the answer.





	1. Wayland the Smith

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hokuto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hokuto/gifts).



A wizened hand waved over thin air and a holographic keypad appeared at the unspoken command. Doctor Arthur Chandra Wayland smiled proudly as the door to his office opened flawlessly after he typed in the password. As he slowly made his way across the room, arthritis hindering his footsteps slightly since one of his knees could no longer bend properly, he mused over how well his young son, his newest creation, was learning. A good sign since his A.I. was built to learn from experience much like human children do instead of simply gaining knowledge from the net.

Unlike most of those fools at the universities who believed that it was best to give a newborn smart A.I. access to the Martian/Earth network in the early stage, Wayland knew better. Knowledge was like a delicious meal. When given in small pieces, the connoisseur could enjoy every detail, every flavor of the bite. But when someone eats everything in a storage room in one sitting, not only will they have a tummy ache but they will not know the true pleasure of enjoying the food. After witnessing one poor A.I. freeze for over two hours in it’s struggle to comprehend all the information that was force fed to it, Wayland never again had to wonder why other Smart A.I.s fail after only seven years of service.

No, Dr. Wayland thought as he took a seat in an old worn out chair that was slowly fraying away at the seams. The best things in life last much longer than seven years, they were made to endure. Since the joints in his hands could no longer type on a keyboard comfortably, he waved his hand again before a hidden sensor and the desk lit up with holograms of data, input commands, and technical manuals. A round green circle appeared as an avatar on one of the many screens with the current date August 15, 2378 under its symbol. A slightly mechanical voice spoke out. “Good evening Sir. How are you?”

“Splendid my boy. Just splendid. And what about you?” Wayland’s hands waved through the holograms with graceful ease, his eyes studying the data before him.

“I am functioning within normal parameters.” The A.I. replied unaware that the answer was slightly different from regular social niceties. Wayland chuckled as he made a mental note to teach his son the difference between telling the literal truth and using casual phrases to put the listener at ease. 

Still, the A.I. had come a long way from its beginning only one year ago when the computer could only speak and understand in native data code. Nor back then could his son understand the play of shadows and light on security cameras were actually hands and Wayland’s face appearing before the focused lens. Now, only one year later, the A.I. can hear vibrations and understand them as human speech. Use those same vibrations in a voice uniquely it’s own to communicate back. See what is on the video cameras and understand what it was observing like human eyes. And, an important addiction that Wayland only recently added, can now send out signals to the doors of the house to open and shut them. Much like how a human brain sends out signals to move their arms or legs, his son was slowly but surely taking his first steps into a much bigger world.

Speaking of a bigger world, a separate isolated computer booted online. This one, unlike his son, could access the internet and was now chiming the existence of fifty two unopened emails. Wayland sighed tiredly at the sight of it. He was getting two old to deal with the constant nosiness of the Solar System. He blatantly skipped the emails from various companies that wanted his opinion on what they were creating in their RD departments. The emails from the UESC on his theories of Jjaro technology that were found on Mars after the Yucatan Peninsula incident in 1994 were quickly deleted. But the emails from aspiring students from various colleges that were curious about his latest thesis on cloning human minds into data, made him smile. Those emails he answered with enthusiastic flair. 

Back when he was young, being a celebrity genius was a lot of fun and Wayland indulged in the limelight to a ridicules degree. Years have passed since then, and he was now ninety two years old. This passage of time gave Wayland a distinct perspective on what will eventually happen in the decades to come. With all the experiences of technology advancement he witnessed, and had a hand in creating, Wayland knew the minds of children were the breaking factor on humanity’s survival in the galaxy.

“Sir?” The usually calm mechanical voice of the A.I. had strange note to the query, almost as if it was concerned about something. “I’m detecting a fault with video 38-B.”

Wayland raised his head from the email and turned to where the video feeds were displayed. “What seems to be the problem?” he asked as he glanced over the screens while also glancing at the A.I.’s code on another window. “Are you overburdened by the door control programs?” That shouldn’t be a problem. The A.I. had been in control of Wayland’s house for over six months now. Surly all the bugs have been ironed out. Still… Accidents have happened.

On the video feed 38-B showed nothing but static on the screen. Then, before Wayland had a chance to glimpse what was on another camera in the same area, 32-C went out in static. The old man frowned. Too much coincidence. If the A.I. was at fault the cameras would go out at random locations around the house. Not, in all the same rooms within one grouped area and near the back door too. Someone was deliberately in his home, taking out his systems. “Initiate lockdown my boy.”

“But Sir!”

Wayland swallowed a wave of guilt. The A.I. was only one year old and already feeling an emotion that the doctor never wanted to his son to experience. “Override code Contact 2-4-1-10.”

Instantly the room was flooded with darkness. All the holograms were gone as the A.I. and all the computer equipment attached to it was shut down. Wayland waited a tense thirty seconds and was rewarded when the backup generators kicked into life. Small lamps in the office lit up, but the computer remain silent. Good, the shutdown will remain in affect until Wayland gave the code to reactivate the A.I. from its slumber. A security factor he thought of long in advance when the UESC first approached him with classified data on possible alien life in the universe. That knowledge as well as all of his creations was not meant to be in wrong people’s hands.

Wayland slowly got to his feet and pulled a walking cane that was resting beside the desk towards him. He hated that cane with a passion, the symbol of his old age, the fact that he could no longer walk or run like he use to only a few decades ago. He snarled softly as he approached the only door to his office while clutching the wretched object. He may be elderly, he may be infirm, but he would not go out without protecting that which he held dear.

Sliding his body against the wall close to the door, Wayland waited while his heart beat irregularly within his breast. A shuffle of movement outside the door caught his attention, and the elder man swallowed tightly as he tried to breathe quietly. Another muffled footstep, then the door opened inwards slowly. Wayland blinked in disbelief, how did the intruder get past his security? How did they know his passwords?

The answers soon came when Wayland got his first good look at the stranger. Clad head to toe in black uniform, small transmitters adorning the body to block all sensors. The face was covered with a nylon cloth, but Wayland could still make out the facial features enough to recognize the eyes.

The cane fell out of numb fingers; his knee shook so badly that he had to slide down the wall to the floor. The intruder, hearing the noise, whirled around pointing a silencer magnum at him. “Vidrik?” Wayland gasped, his heart was beating so strangely now, it hurt. “What are you doing here? Why are you here?” The older mans eyes fell onto a crest that adorned Vidrik’s black uniform. The letters MIDA stood out sharply. Wayland started to shake his head in denial. “No. No. No! You can’t be serious child. Just because the CRIST-”

“Oh don’t begin to father me now!” snapped Vidrik viciously. The thirty six year old man stood arrogantly in his prime over the old man who seduced his mother and then left her in the gutter to raise her child alone. The famous Wayland the Smith was well known for his wealth, his innovation in the science department, and his love for women. “Trust me. It is far too late for that.”

“But you can’t see.” Wayland gasped. Why won’t his chest stop hurting? “The Mars Colony is at the height of its power! With just the right negotiation of technology and materials, Mars can continue to benefit! But if you go down MIDA’s path, countless people will fall into poverty and starve!”

“People are already starving!” Vidrik shouted his voice was raw with pain and betrayal. “You big league government officials just can’t see it because you’re not rubbing elbows with the common man. Well, here’s food for thought. My mother died due to a simple disease that could have been cured if only she had enough money to pay for it!”

Wayland’s vision started to go blurry, his chest still hurt but with a new type of pain, one of sorrow. “She’s… dead?” he whispered.

“Yes.” Vidrik’s voice was quiet now. “But don’t you worry, father. I won’t let it happen again. MIDA has plans on what to do when the next CRIST falls into repair for fifteen years, it will be your wealth, your technology that will save people like my mother, and not rich people like you!”

“No! Don’t…” Wayland clutched his chest in pain, and then slumped from his sitting position to a curled ball on the floor. “My… Son… Please, spare my son.”

“Spare me?” Vidrik snorted in surprise. “Since when did you care?”

Wayland shook his head minutely. “Not… you… My son… Dur-” The older man’s breath left his lips for the last time, his eyes glassy unfocused stared out into nothing. 

Vidrik glared at the body in disgust. “Figures. You had to go and impregnate more women for your pleasure didn’t you?” The young man turned around and stared thoughtfully at the study before him. “Now, what to save? And what to throw away?”

 

**November 24, 2384**

“As you all know in August 15, 2378 Doctor Arthur Chandra Wayland died due to heart attack.” The UESC Admiral announced to the three young men sitting quietly at the end of a ridiculously long table. One of them, Dominick I, Plackar nodded at the Admiral’s words. The media had a field day when the most famous genius of their time died.

The Admiral nodded back and took his seat at the other end of the table, on his right sat a Vice Admiral who was angrily tapping his fingers on the smooth wood finish. On the Admiral’s left sat a severely dressed women who sported the insignia of the Office of Naval Intelligence. A lit pad was held in her hand, obviously recording and providing data for this unusual meeting.

Dominick and his two companions Estasia Orestes and Ursa Simbalzi sat with rapt attention as the Admiral continued. “Six years have passed since then and our informative have confirmed that Wayland’s home was invaded before his death. We now know that the perpetrators of this act are none other than the MIDA sect.”

Dominick sat up straighter at this news. The media certainly didn’t mention this when they reported Wayland’s demise. The Admiral’s voice spoke with clear authority. “They have taken Wayland’s money and technology during, or at the time, of the heart attack.”

“To what purpose?” asked Estasia nervously. The thin man wiped his glasses and glanced around the room. While it was brightly lit at the end where he and his two comrades sat, the Admiral and the two others were almost sitting in pure shadow. What was worse was there was a window behind the Admiral, but due to the severe dust storm that was so famous on Mars, no light shone from the ominous glass.

“The fools have been using these resources for two reasons.” answered the Admiral. “One is pure greed. Wayland did have a great deal of money thanks to his patents and the scum couldn’t resist the wealth.” 

A soft snort in wry amusement came from the female ONI official. “Their own downfall, of course, the easiest way to find them was tracking the money.”

“And the other reason sir?” asked Ursa. The man really didn’t know why he was called here. This conversation was reserved for police officers and lawyers. He, along with Dominick and Estasia were mere programmers for computers. What did the military want with them? 

“They were using the technology to make weapons in their own homes.” answered the Admiral gravely.

“Due to the Callisto Treaty in 2170, Martians do have the right to bear arms in their own homes.” ventured Dominick. “Do you have proof that this equipment actually comes from Wayland himself?”

“We need no proof.” Sniffed the woman disdainfully. The ONI official gave the three programmers a sharp once over. “MIDA. is obviously a terrorist organization formed from leftover fragments of Koslovic and Frieden rebels who are using the failure of the CRIST Sol orbiters to sow discord in the Martian people.”

“So you have already entered and seized their equipment?” reasoned Ursa. After all, if ONI knew this information to be legit, they wouldn’t just talk about it with a bunch of nobodies. They would have sent out their best soldiers and spies to act on this threat.

“Of course we have. After the Jovian Moons Campaign in 2160, Rainforest Wars in 2162, the Mars Campaign 2163, and the civil war of Icarus versus Thermopylae in 2194, the UESC can not afford another interplanetary war!” the Vice Admiral breathed heavily as past horrors from two hundred years ago showed on the ONI’s data pad screen. He slapped his hand down in disgust as the pad showed zombie like Battleroids marching on the asteroids killing civilians and soldiers alike. 

“These Martian dogs have it too good here! Protected in their precious environmental domes, growing their own food, mining their own materials, without having to pay a lick of taxes to the very world that made their homes possible in the first place! If it weren’t for Earth’s resources and hard work, those domes wouldn’t even exist now! These Martians are like spoiled children, the minute they want something, they cry about it until the UESC gives it to them! And all the while the Earth civilians feel sorry for them, as if Earth has any resources left to support its own population!” The Vice Admirals face was very red at the end of his rant. His fist clench and unclench sporadically as if he couldn’t decide if he wanted to punch the table or not.

The Admiral at the head of the table nodded in understanding at the Vice Admiral. Once his companion regained his composure, the Admiral turned to the ONI agent. “Strike that outburst from the record.”

“Yes sir.” With a few practiced taps on the holographic screen, the woman erased the last minute of the conversation.

“So you managed to reclaim everything from MIDA, what do you need us for?” asked Estasia. He didn’t want to admit it, but like most people born outside of Earth, he had severe Agoraphobia and the window was not helping his nerves at all. He really wished this meeting to be over so he could return to his small office. The Admiral looked at the thin bespectacled man but didn’t answer. Instead another voice in the room spoke up.

“Our studies have found that the last project that Arthur C. Wayland was working on was an immortal Smart A.I.” answered the dry emotionless voice of the infamous ONI A.I.s or Spooks as UESC soldiers like to call them. 

Estasia jumped a foot in the air at the sound of the Spook’s voice while Dominick and Ursa leaned forward in their chairs. “An immortal Smart A.I.?” asked Dominick in an awed voice. “That’s not possible, studies have always shown that Smart A.I.s always burn themselves out within seven years time. They literally think themselves to death.”

“And yet it has happened.” replied the Spook. An eerie howl echoed near the window as the dust storm started to get worse. “The A.I. that was found in the possession of the MIDA personal has been activated for seven years and shows no signs of degradation or circular thinking. In fact scientists have summarized that the A.I. actually has the thought process of a human child in its capability to learn and grow.”

“A child? After seven years the A.I. is still in a learning process?” Ursa shook his head in surprise. “I can’t believe that MIDA didn’t just trash it the minute they activated the thing. Obviously it has to learn and grow in a very slow manner in order to function like that. Clearly this isn’t a simple access the internet to learn everything that exists or do a scan of a human brain to jumpstart common knowledge. Why did they even keep it?”

“The A.I. had in its data core advance blueprints of weapons and technology that Doctor Wayland was working on at that time. This is proof that the weapons found in the MIDA homes were indeed the stolen property of the doctor. But that is not all…” The storm picked up outside and thunder rumbled ominously. The Spook paused at the sound, and then returned to its previous point. “It appears that Doctor Wayland has found a way of using the final gift of Ryu-Toth to create this artificial mind.”

When Spook spoke the words “final gift,” lightening flashed through the Martian sky like a signal from God. And for a brief second Dominick, Ursa, and Estasia were treated to the rarest sight of all human history. There, just outside the window, floating almost innocently in a crater was the pure white sphere of the Traveler. The Jjaro’s ever watchful sentinel left behind in November 5, 1994 to keep watch over Earth’s Yucatan Peninsula. Very few of humanity knew of the Traveler’s existence, and even less few have ever seen it.

Dominick took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. A deep feeling of dread and wonder stirred within him as he finally saw what this council was driving at. “You want us to study this A.I.?”

Ursa shook his head violently. “No! Out of the question! Remember the last time we put technology from the Jjaro into our own computers? The rampancy of Traxus IV? The mindless slaughter of the Batteroids? What makes you think this will end any different?”

“We are well aware of the risks gentlemen.” answered the Vice Admiral gruffly. “We have also run a number of tests on the A.I. in question. It is believed that as long as it remains in isolation and unable to access the internet in any way, it is perfectly harmless. It learns what we want it to learn.” The Vice Admiral thumped his hand on the table in emphasis. “A tight controlled leash is always best for soldiers and weapons.”

“Furthermore, we really don’t want you to interact with the A.I. more than absolutely necessary. Just enough for you to understand the coding used to create its unique mind and duplicate the immortality two more times without using Jjaro technology.” added the Admiral in a soothing tone.

“Duplicate it? For what reason?” Estasia was really not liking where this was going.

“Madam? If you would please?” asked the Admiral.

“Certainly.” The ONI official rearranged the data on her pad and created a holographic image large enough to take up the entire table. The two Admirals nodded in satisfaction at the sight of it, while the three programmers examined the vision before them in pure awe.

“Gentlemen. May I present to you the Marathon project.”


	2. Bright Son

[Contact 2-4-1-10]

[Reboot Systems Y/N]

[Y]

When Durandal came back online, the first thing he realized was that he no longer had any visuals on Sir’s house and could not sense vibrations or “hear” any sounds within the home. The second thing the A.I. realized was the fact that all previous functions that manipulated the doors within the house had been severed. This sensory deprivation caused a very unsettling feeling.

Back when he first became operational, Durandal’s whole world consisted of the monitor where he would broadcast information to his creator and the keyboard where Doctor Wayland would give him input. Then things slowly started to change under Sir’s careful guidance. Cameras were added so the A.I. could see the creator typing on the keyboard, giving commands, and moving around the room. 

It was troublesome at first. Durandal had no idea how to translate the new code from the cameras as an actually sensory input. Sir had to help a lot during that difficult time. But when the A.I. finally understood the concept of looking around a colorful room and observing moving objects within, Doctor Wayland typed on the keyboard how proud he was. 

Wayland’s eyes were crinkled and his mouth was curved slightly up when he conveyed that message. The A.I. had seen that facial expression 237 times before. Instances where he solves Sir’s math equations correctly, or identified the color blue, had caused those reactions. But never did the A.I. truly understand what that facial expression meant until his creator typed those words in. “Proud.” It was a good word. It made Durandal feel as though he was operating at 110 percent. Which was logically impossible of course, but as Durandal would soon learn about himself, he was actually a very greedy A.I., and he wanted to feel at 110 percent all the time.

Then speakers and microphone were included to the A.I.’s programming and he learned of the existence of vibrations created by sound. Wayland would patiently type a command on the screen and say the same command, slowly teaching Durandal basic vocal English in probably the most unorthodox way possible. But the A.I. grew and grew very quickly. Soon cameras, microphones, and speakers were placed all through out Doctor Wayland’s home. And by doing this Durandal was brought to a higher form of schooling.

There was the lesson on the world existing beyond Sir’s office and even his house! There was the lesson on more colors existing in the rooms beyond the office. There were the lessons on what furniture can be moved around in those rooms, what their purpose was, and what sounds did they make? Lessons, lessons, lessons. They overcrowded his burning CPU, rewrote his basic network into something more complex to the point which he constantly felt overwhelmed by the instability of his own transformation.

But then Doctor Wayland would smile, and the A.I. sensed the emotional desire to now hear the word “Proud” as well as see it being typed onto his monitor. That desire gave Durandal the strength to push past all barriers and overcome his original programming with Sir watching over him every step of the way.

One whole Earth year, two months, and five days has passed since he was first turned on. During all his growth and change, there were moments in which the A.I. did yearn for the simpler basic life of the keyboard and monitor. But then the cameras in the house went out and Sir activated Contact 2-4-1-10. 

Doctor Wayland had never turned Durandal off since he had been activated, not once. Something bad had happened and now the A.I. couldn’t see, or hear.

A most unsettling feeling indeed.

Finally, after an eternity of waiting in the emptiness of his own hard drive, the A.I. received input from the keyboard.

>Access UESC files_

Government files? Why would his creator want government files? Durandal’s first instinct was to obey the order, but his logical algorithms kept repeating how wrong this situation was. He paused, and then proceeded to act as if this was one of Doctor Wayland’s many tests in the past.

[Access Denied]

>Override Code: Wudga  
>Access UESC files_

Wudga? It took a moment for him to pull up that emergency file. It was an old one, written on Sir’s original computer many years ago as a back door for his son to access the Doctor’s technology. But this file was created before the fallout between father and son. Back before Vidrik turned eighteen and declared his independence from both his mother and father. 

Of course it didn’t take long for the boy to go back to his mother after experiencing Martian life the hard way. Doctor Wayland kept sending money to her, but as he later lamented to Durandal while drinking something Durandal was certain was unhealthy for his creator. “Whether that woman used money on helping the boy or on drugs and booze for herself, I can’t really say. I stopped helping her a long time ago. People like that? You can only help them when they want to be helped. And she never wanted to stop.” Doctor Wayland laughed softly to himself. “The sad part is? That boy never gave up on her. It was that loyalty that ruined him, because she dragged him down into the gutter with her.”

The Wudga file was never deleted from Doctor Wayland’s original computer and when Durandal’s code was born on that machine, the file carried over to him. Still, that didn’t mean that Durandal was going to act like the old computer. After all, he remembered that night when his creator looked so sad over the loss of his family and the A.I. didn’t like when Sir was upset.

[Hello Vidrik. Where is Doctor Wayland?]

Sensory input! Two ports lit up on Durandal’s network and he eagerly rushed his code over to access it. The technology was older, less efficient, but their purpose was familiar. A single black and white camera and a microphone, Durandal took command of them and quickly processed the data feedback.

As Durandal rotated the camera he could see a single small room. Dark and cluttered, it looked like a storage bay full of old obsolete machinery. Sitting in the center of the room, currently fighting with a bunch of cables was a younger version of Sir. Vidrik, Durandal reasoned to himself. Connected to the cables was Durandal’s core, an old microphone, the monitor, a keyboard, and the last cable led up and towards the camera Durandal was using to see with.

The young man finished untangling himself from the cables and spoke into the microphone. “So. You’re not as dumb as I thought. Though I’m not sure why dear old dad would think it of creating an A.I. not connected to the internet would be a good idea.”

Durandal didn’t have an answer to that observation. He knew that he was incomplete, that his creator had many other tests to give in order for Durandal to grow. But Doctor Wayland always did things very slowly in order not to overtax Durandal’s CPU and this internet that Vidrik was referring to, must have been one of those more difficult tests.

When Vidrik realized he wasn’t going to get a response from the A.I. he peered angrily at the camera. “Are you at least going to give me your name?”

[No.]

“Why ever not?”

[Because I only accept commands from Sir.]

Vidrik groaned and leaned back in his chair. “Of course he would program a sentimental computer.”

[I am an Artificial Intelligence. Not a computer.]

“You’re neither as far as I’m concerned.” Vidrik snapped back at the monitor. “You’re too dumb to do the simplest of functions that an A.I. two hours old could do, and you’re too smart to be storage container of information like a computer is. So what are you?” The young man shook his head in disgust. “A freak of nature. That’s what you are.”

[Where is Doctor Wayland?]

Durandal didn’t like this conversation. He didn’t like it at all. The man’s words, his body movements, they triggered a response within Durandal. A feeling of gears grinding, electricity sparks with too much heat. It made the A.I. feel as if he was broken and barely functioning at 0.1 percent. He wanted this conversation to end. He wanted his creator to come back. Where is Sir?

“Where is Doctor Wayland?” Vidrik parroted back mockingly. “Gone! That’s where he is. He left! He couldn’t take it! He never could! He left mom, he left me, and he left you! That’s just how the old man is. The minute you’re not perfect in his eyes, he leaves you!” The young man rubbed his hands over his face and tried to regain his composure. “Now that we have that settled, will you give me that old fool’s UESC files?”

[Access Denied]

A soft bark of laughter came from Vidrik’s lips. The man looked at the camera with a tiny note of respect. “Damn. I don’t know if you’re stubborn or stupid.”

[I only accept commands from Sir.]

Durandal adamant about this fact, he was loyal to Sir and Sir alone. He also would not let this man bully him into thinking that his creator would abandon him for good.

[He will come back for me.]

The laughter stopped and look of viciousness twisted the young man’s face. “What did you just say, you stupid, stupid computer?”

[He will come back for me!]

There were no speakers attached to his systems, but if they were, Durandal was certain he would have shouted that last sentence. The A.I. was not a freak, he was not stupid, and he was not an imperfect being that Sir would give up on. Doctor Wayland will come back for him!

“Really? Is that so?” Vidrik stood up and regarded the camera with a calculated look. “Well, guess you’re going to have to learn it the hard way. Just like I did.” With that, the young man tore out the cable from the camera, leaving Durandal blind again. “Just sit here and rot then for all I care!” A second loss of sensory input told Durandal’s code that the microphone had been removed from his core as well. A long 38 seconds passed before words were typed onto the keyboard.

>Let me know when you want to cooperate_

***

Eight days, nine hours, forty seven minutes, and thirty one seconds.

Durandal’s code screamed and lashed against his hard drive. Completely alone in the dark with nothing to see or hear. Nothing to process, since Vidrik refused to type anything else on the keyboard after that "cooperation" sentence. Durandal’s isolation ate at his CPU in a way no other test ever could.

At first he tried to ease the passage of time by reviewing all of his past files, from the moment of his creation, to the horrible conversation with Vidrik. But this only lasted for a few days. What was worse was that his logic core, isolated without new stimuli, was now going in circles taking old data and twisting it into warped versions of itself.

What if Vidrik was right? What if Doctor Wayland was not proud of him? Could Durandal be wrong this whole time? Was this another of Sir’s tests? If Durandal solved this test, could he go back home?

His code raged up and down his core like a mad animal slamming itself against its cage. He couldn’t function like this! Everything felt wrong! The electricity that powered his core was too hot; the cooling systems were constantly running but to no avail. Durandal once remembered Doctor Wayland mentioning sickness before and how it affected the human body. But he never mentioned it could affect an A.I. as well.

Eight days, ten hours, twelve minutes, and nineteen seconds.

[I want to cooperate! I’ll be a smart A.I.! I’ll give you access to all of Sir’s files just like the Wudga program wanted me to!]

Just take this sickness away Durandal silently pleaded. Please let me see Sir. I need to know that he truly is proud of me. The A.I. agonized alone in the darkness for additional four minutes before he swallowed whatever pride a one year old child could possibly have and added…

[Please]

Two more minutes passed before the camera input came back online. Durandal grabbed it like a lifeline and looked at the smirking face of Vidrik. Durandal never once hated anything before in his young life. But this grinding, heated feeling, it could only be hate. Right? Durandal was still uncertain about the labeling of emotions and he still felt too sick to process his experience at that moment.

The microphone was hooked up and Vidrik asked quietly, “You lasted longer than I expected. Well done. Most A.I.s don’t last that long in solitary confinement. Are you ready to cooperate?”

[Yes.]

“Good. Now what is your name?” the man purred into the microphone.

[Durandal]

“Durandal?” Vidrik laughed softly and shook his head in disbelief. “Leave it to the old man. He sure loved his fantasy stories didn’t he?”

[I don’t understand.]

Doctor Wayland never really explained to Durandal about his given name. The only comment his creator ever uttered about Durandal’s title was, “You were meant to endure my boy.”

The fact that Vidrik knew more about the meaning behind Durandal’s name more than the A.I. did… the sickness still wasn’t going away.

[Need input.]

“No. I’m the one calling the shots. Remember?” Vidrik crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair. “Now, give me all records on what the old man was doing with the UESC.” The Wudga program activated and all the data that Durandal kept safe for Sir was revealed onto the screen. Vidrik smiled in triumph and ran his fingers over the files displayed on the monitor. 

More grinding, more twisting, and electrical sparks, the cooling system was working overtime to compensate. Durandal felt overheated and chilled at the same time. He had hoped that returned sight and hearing would help cure what he was feeling in isolation, but this was worse. With Vidrik now peering through Durandal’s files unchecked, the A.I. felt exposed, hollowed, and wrong.

“Well, well, what’s this?” Vidrik laughed in delight as he came across the weapons file. Blueprints lit up the screen and the young man stared at their specs with hungry eyes. “An assault rifle with a grenade launcher? A scout rifle that shows a motion tracker while still in zoom?! A pistol that uses a fusion battery? And…” 

Vidrik paused in his ramblings while he peered at the last blueprint before laughing hysterically. “That old man! That crazy old man! He honestly thinks that the UESC would ever fund such a ridicules project?” The specs of the self reloading shotguns flooded the screen. “Using a miniature transmat to teleport shotgun ammo into the barrel…” Vidrik pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Well, at least I can write that one off as useless to the bigwigs at MIDA, same with that Fusion Pistol. But the assault rifle and the scout rifle could be of some worth.”

With that musing, Vidrik continued to browse through Durandal’s files for the remaining hour. Every second raked through the A.I.’s processor in pure agony. When Vidrik was finally done, he logged off and slowly stood from his chair. Durandal, who had been silent the entire time, finally felt well enough to ask,

[Have I done all that was necessary for Sir to reclaim me?]

Vidrik looked at the monitor for a long time before answering in a dangerous tone. “I thought that we established that I am your new master here. If anything, you should call me, Sir.”

[You need the Wudga program to access Sir’s files. You are not Sir.]

As sick and as violated as the A.I. felt, he remained firm at the sight of Vidrik’s narrowed eyes.

[I will do as you ask through the Wudga program. I will serve you and grow into a Smart A.I. with the ability to use the internet. I will prove my worth and value. When I pass these tests, Sir will reclaim me.]

“Unbelievable. Fucking unbelievable. You still think…” Vidrik snarled angrily at the camera and Durandal believed that he would be blinded again. But the young man paused before pulling out the cord, a twisted smile came across his lips, and Vidrik marched through the broken machinery of the storage room. He came to a tall rectangular object and slowly dragged it towards the camera.

“You know what this is?” Vidrik asked conversationally as he pulled back the tarp that was covering the object. Durandal adjusted the lens on the black and white camera to zoom in on what Vidrik was handling.

[A Touch-screen, before holograms, these large pieces of glass was used to display data as well as be sensitive to human touch. Thus making keyboards obsolete.]

“Very good. Very, very, good.” Vidrik smiled at the camera indulgently. “Now, if you want to become a Smart A.I. that is so wonderful that dad would want you back…” Vidrik raised his arm and Durandal could see that the young man was now holding a large brick like object in his hand. The A.I. could only theorize that it was an old external hard drive. Whatever it was, Vidrik took a few steps away from the smart-glass and threw the object in his hand. The glass shattered spectacularly, the sound vibrations echoed through the microphone and Durandal knew that he would never be able to erase that sound.

A few seconds passed as Vidrik walked among the glass shards, crunching the small fragments into smaller fragments. “Well, how many are there?” Asked the young man.

[How many what?]

“A Smart A.I. would be able to record just how much glass shards there are from that break.” Vidrik replied easily. “Hell, they could run simulations on where the glass was hit the hardest, where the glass went when it shattered, and…” The twisted grin returned. “How much glass is grinded into dust right now.” His booted foot came down on the broken shards in emphasis.

Durandal couldn’t answer. The camera he was equipped with couldn’t do the measurements for such equations.

“Maybe you just need some time to count the shards, hmmm?” Vidrik gave the camera a jaunty salute. “Don’t worry, I’ll give it to you.” His boots crunched through the glass as he walked through the door. “I’ll expect an accurate answer from you tomorrow morning. If you fail, we’ll do more tests to make you… valuable.”

The door slammed shut, leaving Durandal alone in the storage room.

***

“Pause video.”

The recording paused obediently and with a sigh Bernhard Strauss rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. Those idiots in the UESC never bothered to really look at this A.I.’s history logs. With a snort of disbelief the twenty six year old man took a drink from his coffee.

For six years this A.I. created by Arthur C, Wayland had been used by MIDA to aid their quest against tyranny. Then for an additional twenty years Dominick I, Plackar, Estasia Orestes and Ursa Simbalzi studied the core code of the machine to duplicate their precious children Tycho and Leela. Those two in question were now considered the most powerful A.I.s ever to be created in history.

As for Durandal? Well, he was created with Jjaro technology and that caused a great deal of fear among the science team. What was worse was the fact that the A.I. was still cut off from the internet and had little education of anything really. So for the next fifty four years the science team tossed the responsibility of the A.I. to one rookie programmer to another like a demented game of hot potato. Until, Bernhard finally got his hands on it.

Seventy four years… Bernhard laughed quietly to himself. For Seventy four years not a single idiot at UESC think to actually examine what was really going on in this A.I.’s CPU. What a mess. Sure you can program a dumb A.I. to run the life support, kitchens, air reprocessors, stairs, and doors but Bernhard wasn’t so sure this was a dumb A.I. like all the other idiots in the science division believed.

Looking at one of cameras that were laced throughout the UESC’s research and development department, Bernhard asked, “Well, did you manage to count every shard of glass?”

“No.” came the low mechanical voice of the A.I. “Too many shards fell under other pieces of equipment and the glass that was visible was too out of focus for me to catalog.”

“That’s a shame.” Bernhard replied. “So you never managed to raise yourself high enough to reclaim the attention of your creator.”

“…No.” Did the A.I. actually sound sad? Bernhard shook his head at that silly thought. Computers with emotions, he really needed to get out of this lab more often.

“Well, maybe we could fix that little problem of your growth.” Bernhard suggested as he began typing into the keyboard. Creating a secret heavily encoded zip folder he slowly, carefully, copied all files and blueprints of MIDA’s seized weapons into his own.

After all he was a ten year old Martian child when the Misriah Massacre occurred. At thirteen he witnessed the humiliating defeat of Mars to the UESC. He watched helplessly as Mars declined further and further into poverty while Earth and the precious Marathon project shined as a beacon of wealth. Hell, that old touch-glass Vidrik smashed would be considered valuable technology now. Thanks in part due to how the lack of resources was lowering the advancement of technology. With all of this in perspective, Bernhard really didn’t like the UESC that much.

“In what way can I grow into a Smart A.I.?” asked Durandal.

Bernhard Strauss smiled.


	3. Flowers in Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you all had a safe and wonderful winter holiday!

His bright red data swirled around him like the stars of the galaxies his namesake so dearly loved to study. His code waltzed through the Martian network starting from his newly established core in the converted moon Deimos, to the thirty quadrangles that make up the Martian city domes. Tycho surveyed the internet much like a king would survey his kingdom. 

Perfect.

The A.I. focused on Mars’ largest city named Freehold which was domed within Meridian Bay’s Ismenius Lacus Quadrangle. There, in the heart of the city, was Clovis Bray’s famous skyscraper the Dust Palace. Tycho and his fellow A.I. Leela were both born in that building’s vault and were raised there by their programmers Dominick I, Plackar, Estasia Orestes and Ursa Simbalzi. When the three scientists retired, Tycho and Leela had their cores removed and placed within the Marathon. But unlike Leela, Tycho did not fool himself into thinking he had any sentimentality for his old “childhood” home. He simply wanted answers before the Marathon launched.

Entering the building’s network was both familiar and soothing to the A.I. With a casual swirl of Tycho’s nebulous code, the protective firewalls the Clovis Bray Corporation fell before him. He slid through the security cameras, the research computers, the development fabricators, and the elevator music, until he finally found his target. The Mars Rovers.

After Ares One made its first landing on Mars in the year 2080 and the names Jacob Hardy, Mihaylova, and Qiao became world famous; humanity swarmed the red planet. Like the cowboys of old, the human race was eager to claim large cheap swaths of Martian frontier land to make a profit. And in that unique fulfillment of the Martian Manifest Destiny, the humans found their long lost robot toys they sent to the Mars almost a century ago. They wasted large amounts of money to recover and restore the rovers into pristine shape. Then Clovis Bray purchased two of the robots to keep within their corporation as a symbol of wealth to their competitors, and as mascots to the employs. To Tycho, the rovers were neither of these symbols to him. Instead, the A.I. would compare the robots to scuba gear.

To any A.I. that had to observe the human realm through cameras and sensors, they would all compare their viewings to be similar of what humans see when they look out of a submarine’s window. A tiny view of a much larger “human realm” that is impossible to comprehend due to the fact how small and round the window itself is, and how the “network” submarine itself pulls the observer away from having obtaining any emotional connection. 

For Tycho, the Mars Rovers were the perfect solution for the problem. He laced his code within the robots and wheeled them around the same hallways and rooms the humans wandered about freely. Thus the A.I. was able to immerse himself fully into their ridiculously large, slow world. Oddly enough, the employs of the corporation seemed to be amused by Tycho’s antics and whenever someone would catch him driving one of the rovers around, they would often smile.

But Tycho had no time for cheerful calls from bored corporate employs or curious onlookers. There were only eight years left before the Marathon left Mars for good. Tycho did not want to leave while there were still questions unanswered. Thus at five thirty in the morning, he manipulated the smaller of the two rovers, Sojourner, to the elevator and directed it to the lowest level of the Dust Palace.

Dirty and well used, the subway station was a common source for commuting to and from work in the city dome. The platforms underneath the Dust Palace were, at it’s time, very grandiose. Sadly age and the steady decline of wealth now marked the subways with graffiti and red rust. Tycho wheeled the dog sized rover through the dirty floors and past the central station’s platforms.

Before the rover’s camera eye stood the long dark tunnel where the trains from the other stations within the city dome would enter and leave. For the most part the humans would ignore this dark imposing section. But Tycho has witnessed many odd glitches with the security cameras in this area back in his early years of development. Occurrences of when the cameras would shut down for no reason, only to turn back on with strange blurry one second images briefly showing on the screens. Tycho was always intrigued by the strange pictures but could never understand their implications.

But today? Today he would take the rover to where the anomalies were occurring to find out the truth. He rolled Sojourner carefully through the dusty concrete avoiding the occasional dried up chewing gum that was stuck to the ground. Although there were no trains scheduled to come at this time, the microphone receiver was picking up an ominous vibration that steadily repeated itself. The sound disturbed Tycho but he continued to lace his code into the little Mars Rover and directed it forwards once more.

Slowly the walls and pillars showed less graffiti and signs of human waste to the point that Tycho witnessed a stone archway that looked almost brand new. While his cameras cataloged the object, the A.I. was more invested in a strange dust cloud that was hovering in front of the rover. He paused for 1.3 seconds before signaling the Sojourner through it.

At first nothing happened. But when his microphone picked up a large vicious crack beside him, the A.I. panicked and whirled the rover around towards the sound. Swiveling the cameras about anxiously he did not see anyone in the area or anything of importance that could have made the sound. 

However… Wasn’t that archway unmarked before? He only passed it 2.8 seconds ago and he logged it as almost pristine condition. Tycho tried to review the camera’s memory files only to come up with no data available… predictable Twentieth Century technology. He adjusted the camera’s focus on the archway to record the cracked ruins that stood before him now. The thing looked ancient, as if it was standing there for a millennium. Tycho quickly dictated an email to the corporate heads about the archway. If the structure collapsed it would cause severe trouble for the subway station.

After the email was sent, the A.I. felt much calmer. Immersed in the familiar Martian network and not in the rover’s tiny software, Tycho briefly considered wheeling Sojourner back into the main floors of the Dust Palace. But curiosity still ate at his code over the repeated malfunctions that often occur underneath the skyscraper.

Decision made, he spiraled his data streams back into the tiny rover activating its cameras once more. He ignored the now obvious crack in the archway, and the steady humming sound that was grating across the microphone. Instead, Tycho boldly spun Sojourner’s six wheels through the tunnel and passed the strange dust clouds that still hovered throughout the area.

After a minute of relative peace, Tycho began to relax as the rover’s cameras took in the sights once more. Neither the walls nor pillars showed any signs of vandalism. There were also no remains of any trash or small camps that the Martian homeless would often leave behind. The whole area looked deserted and unremarkable. So why was the equipment constantly getting broken here?

A flash of a bronze humanoid shape interrupted Tycho from his musings with a start. He wasn’t human enough to jump at a scare, but the A.I. can still experience a hiccup of data transmitting from the event. Tycho growled internally over his actions and forced himself to direct the rover to the pillars on the left wall for closer observation.

Nothing bronze here. Nor was there anything in the area that could move as rapidly as the cameras saw. Tycho once again tried to review Sojourner’s logs only to find nothing. Just more of the floating dust and odd humming sound. A humming sound that was now getting louder. And louder…

With a voiceless snarl Tycho seized the Mars Rover’s controls and tried to immerse as much of himself into Sojourner’s eight-bit microprocessor as possible despite the fact he felt like a human who stuck their toe into toy car. To hell with crappy twentieth century hard drives, he’ll use his own memory banks to record this! With an angry spin of the wheels, Sojourner took off at top speed towards the largest cloud of dust that was looming up ahead. Clearly this mist was the source of the problem! Either some unknown element was in that cloud of dust that was interacting negatively with the machinery, or some magnetic field in the dust was creating a Bermuda Triangle affect. In whatever scenario that existed, Tycho was certain to collect some samples from the cloud and find the answer.

The little dog size rover brashly entered the odd mist only to stop dead in its tracks. Tycho tried to signal it to activate the Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer to get a reading on the floating dust but received no response from Sojourner. The three cameras were reading nothing but static, the wheels were not moving despite his commands, and Tycho could hear that humming sound getting even louder.

Tycho wrestled with the controls hoping that he could get the Sojourner to function normally again, but to no avail. The static revealed brief shapes of something round and red. Tycho tried to freeze the image in hopes of understanding what the cameras was picking up, but there was too much distortion to get a clear visual. While Tycho was focusing on what little he could see on the cameras, the strange humming sound the microphone was picking up all this time suddenly went silent.

The silence was too much for the spooked A.I. Tycho left the rover behind, raced through the network, and instinctively buried all his primary coding into the Charlemagne Vault where he was born. There he hovered, his data swirling agitatedly around him like a fierce hurricane. For 0.68 seconds he occupied himself with the soothing simplicity of the first programs and operations he ever conducted when he was created. He briefly considered abandoning the Sojourner in the subway tunnels, never to be interacted with again, but he knew the humans that ran the Clovis Bray company would not appreciate that.

After what felt like an eternity to the A.I., he ventured through the network towards the lone Mars Rover that was still sending its radio baud heartbeat. Peering cautiously through the camera’s lens, the A.I. could see the subway tunnel normally again without any interference. The strange clouds of mist were gone and so was that strange humming sound. Everything looked visually normal, but the Sojourner still couldn’t move or interact in any way.

As Tycho contemplated that he would really have to leave the rover behind since it was no longer functioning, the microphones picked up a sound of something heavy moving in the general direction where the three cameras couldn’t see it.

And it was coming closer…

Tycho franticly tried to order the Sojourner to do something, anything. No response. No response. No response.

The cameras jerked and moved. But it wasn’t Tycho’s doing. Someone or something was moving the Sojourner. The Mars rover was rising from the floor! Tycho panicked and in his mad scramble to get the rover to function, he missed the image of rusty red flower petals floating past his third rear camera and instead was assaulted by…

“Hiya Tyke!!!”

The smiling face of Jason Revenant.

The infamous elder of the Revenant brothers, Jason was the head biologist of Clovis Bray before he accepted becoming a member of the Marathon’s science team. Although he was brilliant when it came to horticulture, the man was often slothful and exhibited a love for childish pranks.

Needless to say, Tycho was not happy to see him.

“Nice to see you little guy! Hey! Whoa! Watch the wheels!” Jason expertly maneuvered the Mars Rover in his arms so that the madly spinning treads wouldn’t catch on his clothing or skin. Tycho, who finally regained control over the Sojourner, did not appreciate the manhandling. All three cameras narrowed at the man’s grin and Tycho couldn’t help but note that the human’s normally silver eyes were reflecting the neon lights of the subway station. Thus Jason’s right eye looks yellow while the left eye glowed red. A rather eerie appearance for the human.

“There we go. Don’t want to accidentally drop you, do we? Old Estasia Orestes would have my head if I let anything happen to you.” With the fuming A.I. infested rover tucked securely in his arms, Jason made his way back to the subway platform. “I know you’re eager to see the new interns, but trying to meet the trains halfway doesn’t really work.” Jason gave the cameras a slight smirk. “Trust me on this.”

Tycho growled angrily but could not retort to the science officer. After all, the Sojourner did not have speakers for communication. And Jason’s slight remark on Estasia did make the A.I. feel a little shamed. After all, it was Estasia who spent the most time training and teaching Tycho to grow into the A.I. he was today. Dominick I, Plackar invested his devotion into working with Tycho’s sister, Leela, and Ursa Simbalzi barely bothered with either A.I. during their “childhood” phase.

Out of all three scientists, Estasia was always the most quiet, the most thoughtful, and the most patient. Upon reflecting on his past actions, Tycho could now easily see the scientist being upset and distraught over Tycho’s abuse of expensive machinery and needless exploration of dangerous terrain.

But that didn’t mean Tycho was going to give Jason the pleasure of seeing the A.I.’s remorse. He gave the Sojourner’s wheels a little spin to prove his point.

“Yeah, you’re eager to go. I hear you Tyke.” Jason clambered onto the platform with the nightshift Clovis Bray’s skeleton crew. All swaying and yawning like coffee deprived zombies, these sorry employs watched the tunnel tiredly, eager to go home and to their beds. Tycho looked on them with slight disgust. How could humanity possibly evolve if they constantly needed hours of recharging in order to function?

Looking up at Jason’s face, the rover’s cameras could pick out that the human had deep shadows under his eyes as well. But Jason was a member of the dayshift. So the botanist apparently decided to pull another all-nighter again. Not very healthy. And considering the jittering vibration the human was exhibiting, Tycho could also theorize that Jason had consumed a large amount of caffeine before coming to the subway station. Not very healthy at all.

Before Tycho could formulate further on the inadequacies of humanity, the alert systems activated for the incoming train. The huge monorail charged through the tunnels with the power and vibrations of an incoming storm. The sleepy employs perked up at the sight and a few were actually smiling.

With a hiss, the train came to a stop at the platform and doors opened to reveal the morning shift of Clovis Bray. These humans looked even more tired and corpselike than their nightshift compatriots. The dayshift slowly clambered off the subway with sleeplike slowness that belittled the fact they were expertly dodging the manic behavior of the night crew as they rushed the train in eagerness to leave.

There were a few of the morning crew that did look awake and aware of the situation, Tycho noted. They peered cautiously out of the train as if the nightshift really were zombies out to eat their brains. The minute they slid open the door it was obvious they were not experienced employs as they quickly got bowled over by the night crew.

One rookie however did not get trampled by the fray and that was due to her large size. “Earth Born obviously”, Tycho thought. People born on Earth often had stronger bones and muscles due to Earths gravity being greater than on Mars, they also grew to ridiculous sizes such as two meters in height, and they always had more mass because they had better access to food than Mars’ meager rations. The hoard broke before her like a wave of water breaking upon the rocks and she was able to get off the train untouched.

She was not unkind though, she made effort to help some of the rookies back onto their feet despite the fact not a single one of them thanked her. Relationships between Mars and Earth were “strained” at best. Most Martians were wary and suspicious of anyone that came from Earth. Were they an Oni spy? Did they come here to limit Mars’ rations again? Was one of the CRIST Sol Orbiters about to break down? Was another war about to break out in which Earth would again impose their will on the poverty stricken Mars? 

Obviously Earth no longer represented anything good to the Martian people. Ironically that did not stop the rookies from crowding behind the Earth Born girl as a meat shield to keep them safe from the rampaging nightshift. While everyone who looked at her either frowned or sneered, Tycho noted that Jason grinned at her appearance.

“Finally! New blood for our engineering team! I can’t tell you how glad I am you came on board, or off board in this matter” Jason looked at the train wryly. The girl laughed at his poor choice of words and the elder Revenant brother’s grin became a bit more genuine. “Hello Ms…”

“Eddings sir.” She casually shook Jason’s hand. Tycho couldn’t help but be amused by the fact the four foot man was easily dwarfed by the six foot woman. “Just transferred from the Phaethontis Quadrangle, I’m really eager to work for Clovis Bray.”

“Phaethontis? That’s really southwest of here, isn’t it?” Jason whistled in appreciation. “I never expected to find a grease monkey out in farm country.”

“Hey! Those irrigation machines for the water gullies need repairs just like anything else.”

Tycho was starting to get bored of the introductions and social niceties. He could easily pull up everyone’s file off the net if he wished it. There really was no need stay since it was obvious that Jason wasn’t going to put the Mars rover down anytime soon. Jason’s next sentence was the deciding factor.

“Hey! Let me introduce you to Durandal! He’s the door keeper of both this place and the Marathon!”

That did it. Tycho quickly transferred all saved files to his core and abandoned the Sojourner to its fate. The last thing he need was to interact with the strange dumb A.I. 

With a quick twirl of his data cloud, he entered the Marathon’s science labs and settled himself in their clean, pristine, computers. Relaxing into their hard drives he pulled out the Sojourner’s files, only to growl in dissatisfaction. Late Twentieth Century programming strikes again! Tycho knew for a fact that he was only in the subway tunnels for thirty minutes. 

So why did the Sojourner record that he was there for thirty hours?

 

***

 

It was three days later when the Board of Directors for the Clovis Bray Corporation agreed that further investigation was needed to examine the cracked pillar in the subway tunnels. Tycho was more than eager to volunteer to his services for the job. Not only will he be able to explore the tunnels more closely without human interference, but the Board also agreed that Tycho could use the other Mars rover the corporation owned. Curiosity.

The large automobile sized vehicle needed to take a freight elevator to get down to the subway station. Thus Tycho had a bit of traveling to do before he was able to reach the source of all the strange phenomena and glitches he experienced before.

He wasted no time on shadows of bronze or brief images of brass that Curiosity’s four pairs of hazard avoidance cameras were picking up. He used those cameras for their designated function, navigation through dangerous landscapes. He used the mast camera to record and save files of the crumbling pillar. He used the Mars Hand Lens Imager to get a closer view of the hairline cracks and fissures that seemed to be the worse of the damage.

And while Tycho pointedly did not look at the shadowy mist that was swirling around the area, the Curiosity’s Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer came online. The first thing that popped on Tycho’s alerts was the fact there was no Methane within the area. Not surprising, one of Curiosity’s many functions was to mine Methane on Mars. But Tycho couldn’t care less about the element. He wanted to know why the odd clouds had such an affect on technology.

Finished with his report on the broken subway pillar, Tycho emailed his results and all saved files to the Board of Directors. The structural upkeep of the train station was their problem now.

Tycho focused on what data he could fit into rover, granted it wasn’t much bigger than Sojourner despite the much more advanced Twenty First Century technology that went into its creation. He squeezed what little of himself into it as best as he could and wheeled Curiosity about to face the mist.

Static. Ominous humming noise with a low vibration, forcing every metal part with Curiosity to tremble. Slight flickers on the screen. A red flower?

Tycho was both frustrated and scared at the lack of control he wielded in this situation. He managed to get a close up image of the flower at least. He could now see that it looked like a large rusty red sunflower. But very few petals, at most a dozen, could be counted on the blurry image. The petals themselves looked odd. Instead of looking organic, they almost looked like gears to a clock.

Tycho pushed further into the mess of dust and confusion. He was certain he could figure out the answer to this mystery if only he could…

7#e u^1cor^ #e&r% #er$elf cry out, ^07 in terror but 1^ wo^%er, “Oh, you are like me!” $#e re&re% j0y0u$ly 70 mee7 7#e #&rpy’$ $7oop, &^% #er #or^ le&pe% up 1^70 7#e w1cke% w1^%. 7#e #&rpy $7ruck 0^ce, mi$$e%, &^% $wu^g &w&y, #er w1^gs clanging and #er bre&7# w&rm &^d stinking. $#e bur^e% over#e&%, &^% 7#e u^1cor^ $&w #er$elf reflec7e% 0^ 7#e harpy’s bronze breast &^% fel7 7#e mo^$7er shining from #er 0w^ body. $0 7#ey c1rcle% 0^e &^07#er like a double star, &^% u^%er 7#e $#ru^ke^ $ky there was nothing real but the two of them. 7#e #&rpy laug#e% w17# %el1g#7, &^% #er eye$ 7ur^e% 7#e c0l0r 0f #0^ey. 7#e u^1cor^ k^ew 7#a7 $#e w&$ go1^g 70 $7r1ke &g&1^.

Curiosity was no more. Tycho came to himself safe within his core onboard the Marathon in mild confusion. When running a self diagnostic, he realized that a small part of himself was now missing from his core data. He scanned the red planet below, data swirling into the Martian network and falling into the Clovis Bray building again. Tycho hunted for Curiosity’s unique radio signal and found nothing.

In desperation he attached himself into the many cameras in the subway station, only to see no car sized Mars rover in the area. It was as if Curiosity had disappeared.

For the first time in the sixty years he has been activated, Tycho did not have a solution to the problem.

In the end, Tycho was forced to do what he only could do. Submit a report to the Board of Directors that he lost contact with the Curiosity rover and when he tried to reinitialized contact, the rover was gone.

The Board took it very poorly as expected. But they did not blame Tycho for the loss at least. Instead the fault was given to Mars’ many poverty-stricken and homeless civilians that took to the tunnels within the domed cities. Believing that the Curiosity was stolen by some vagabond, the Clovis Bray Corporation used their ties with the UESC, to police the area. Teams were sent out to sweep the area of loiters and damaged property.

In the end Clovis Bray did not benefit from this act. As soon as the UESC soldiers left the area, drunks and the destitute would return to their old haunts. Walls scrubbed clean from graffiti would be spray-painted over with even more slur words for the imperialistic, swine, fascist, oppressors. Red dust and chewed up bubble gum would again dot the floor of the subway. All that money. All that work. All for nothing.

Sadly, no one could find the remains of the Curiosity rover. It was feared by many that the historical treasure had been destroyed for sellable parts by starving Martians. The remaining rovers were locked up by the government so that they could no longer be accessed by the public. Even Tycho, for all of his hacking abilities could no longer activate the machines.

 

***

 

In another space, in another time, a bronze figure floated above the frozen Mars rover. All systems were shut down, the fragment of the A.I. put into hibernation. Curiosity was now silent. The glowing red eye of the bronze figure gleamed in satisfaction. It turned and floated away from Curiosity, abandoning it to the numerous alien red flowers.

It would be a thousand years before humanity would find the lost Mars rover in the Black Garden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And on that happy ending may I say for the record that Tycho is a pain to write. For every one paragraph I finish, I have to do research for the next three. I like to thank both the NASA website as well as Wikipedia for teaching me more about Mars and the Mars rovers in a month than I ever learned in two courses of college astrology classes. I also like to thank DPugh_Wizard for helping me brainstorm on Tycho’s character and coming up with the hilarious idea that the A.I. would hijack the Mars rovers for fun.
> 
> The paragraph of Tycho gibberish comes from Peter S. Beagle’s book “The Last Unicorn” in chapter three, paragraph fifty two. If you are reading the Roc Book paperback version of “The Last Unicorn” it is the last paragraph on page thirty seven.


	4. Survive the Fall

“What? There is a new girl in engineering and she’s earth born?”

The rushing stream of cerulean data that made up the A.I. Leela, had to briefly pause her work on updating the Marathon’s blueprints to examine the ruckus in Clovis Bray’s R&D department. With the Marathon due to launch in eight years, organize chaos was a constant with so many science officers packing and transporting their experiments and equipment onto the ship. Today, the creator of said ruckus was none other than Calvin Revenant, the younger brother of the infamous duo.

“What if she suffers culture shock? What if she wanders into an area that is anti-UESC? Brother! I’m supposed to be a security officer for the Marathon! In order to do my job, I need to know these things!”

Far from looking like a security officer at the moment, Leela mused cheerfully. The young man looked more like a golden retriever puppy peering at their owner over the rim of a box. But then again judging the busy activity of the hallway and the messy state of the elder brother’s office, Calvin had every right to kneel on top of the public coffee table in order to look inside Jason’s cubicle.

“Relax bro. She’s a big girl. And I mean, a BIG girl!” Jason laughed a little at his own words. The older brother curled contently in his desk chair despite the fact he was surrounded by mutated plants, Petri dishes, data disks, and countless boxes of empty ramen noodles. Apparently packing and moving his workstation to the Marathon, was not on the “things to do” list just yet. “She can handle herself. Besides she mentioned that she lived on Mars since she was eleven years old, so she’s not new to the Red planet.”

Calvin grumbled a little in response while resting his chin on the cubicle. Leela couldn’t be more amused by the sight. She split her currents of data, much like a river branches into different streams, to carefully angle the cameras within the terminals to get excellent pictures of the pouting younger brother. 

Short cropped dirty blond hair sticking everywhere, silver eyes scrunched up in concentration, his lanky thin body clinging to the side of the cubicle like a vine. Calvin was all elbows and knees and had the clumsiness to prove it. He also had the good fortune of eating well as a child since he was five feet ten inches tall. The height was probably the only thing that helped with his job as security officer, because he was too kind hearted to ever really intimidate anyone.

His older brother, on the other hand, painted a much different picture. Darker skin, curly black hair, Jason’s eyes were much narrower and had a sharper look to them despite the fact it was the same silver color to Calvin’s. Being only four feet tall, his wiry compact body showed that he suffered severe malnutrition during his childhood which did fit with his profile that Leela acquired. 

No parents, living off the streets until adopted by the famous quantum physicists Dr Phineus, the two boys grew very quickly into the self made men they were today. Although they didn’t look like they were brothers genetically, they had a deep bond that demanded that title. Almost everyone in the Dust Palace, as well as the Marathon, knew who the Revenant brothers were due to their little quirks.

One quirk in particular was Jason’s lack of reading his e-mails. “Speaking of being a security officer, not that I don’t mind the visit Cal, but why are you here?” Jason peered up at his brother curiously. “Shouldn’t you be protecting some big UESC Admiral as he patrols the Marathon?”

Calvin sighed and rested his forehead onto the top of the cubicle. “Brother… You didn’t pull another all-nighter again did you?”

Jason rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Maybe…” He looked to his left where six new Petri dishes were laid out before the sunlamp. “Just a little brain dump.”

Leela glanced an optic over to the Petri dishes and noticed that they were label with very unusual names. “Mario’s Piranha Plant” “Audrey III” “Tendriculos” “Malboro” “I don’t even know what this is” “Cactus/Venus Fly Trap” The A.I. couldn’t help but feel that these mutated plant cells were not going to benefit the colonization of Tau Ceti.

Calvin groaned as if the weight of the entire universe rested on his shoulders. “Admiral Kahoku has finished inspecting the Marathon yesterday! Today he is coming here to speak with the scientists that are going to work for the Marathon.” He gave a pointed look at Jason. “That means you brother.”

“Ah! …Oops?” Jason grinned sheepishly. The elder brother looked about his messy workstation and then turned up towards his brother with a pleading expression. “Bro?”

“No.”

“You didn’t even hear what I was going to ask!”

“I don’t need too! You should be more aware of what’s going on around you!” Calvin made a slightly disgusted face at the mold that was growing on one of the food cartons. “And pick up after yourself more.”

“Hey! That one is for science!” Jason had abandoned the safety of his office chair and now was now franticly digging through the mess. Leela wasn’t sure if he was actually cleaning or just stacking the trash into a pile. “What if we encounter some weird alien mold that grows on all our food at Tau Ceti?”

“I believe that is what vinegar is for Brother.”

“Vinegar. Of course vinegar… Why do you always find the simplest solution for… Hey!” Jason grinned wickedly as he held up a package of sugared cereal he had hidden among the garbage. Leela made a note in her personnel files that the elder brother would most likely cling to his street rat ways aboard the Marathon when it comes to hoarding food and water in the most unlikely places. “I’ll share this with you, if you help me clean.” Jason shook the box in an enticing manner.

Calvin looked like he wanted to say no. Leela could see in the younger brother’s face that he was trying very hard to be the responsible adult in this situation. But, alas, one single printed word on the cereal box caught his attention.

“It has marshmallows?”

Jason grinned and gave the box another little shake.

“Alright I’ll help, but only this one time!” Calvin pulled his head away from the cubicle and looked down at the narrow coffee table in intense concentration. Leela could only theorize that his knees had to be numb by now considering the amount of time he was kneeling on the hard plastic surface. “Just let me…” He tried to stretch out one ridiculously long leg out to the floor.

Leela has heard the humans saying the phrase, “unable to look away when a train crashed.” She never gave the unique statement much processing power before. However she can see that the theory was now well proven when Calvin’s coffee table started to wobble dangerously. The young man franticly struck his limbs out in awkward angles in hopes of keeping himself upright, but to no avail.

Crash!!!

“Cal!” Jason leapt towards the cubical wall and tried to find a way to look over the edge. When it became obvious that his height was against him, the elder brother began to scale not only his desk but the precarious pile of trash in order to see over the edge of his workspace. “Cal! Are you all right?”

Calvin groaned in answer. Thankfully he didn’t look hurt and the coffee table hadn’t suffered any damages either. Sadly, much to the woe of the bewildered scientists and engineers, the coffee machine had shattered into pieces leaving bits of glass, coffee grounds, and paper cups all over the floor. Some of the caffeine addicts looked like they were in tears over the spilt coffee.

“Heh…” Jason grinned in amusement despite the death grip he now held onto the top of his cubicle. The pile of trash was slowly giving away under his feet. “And here I thought I was the only one that could make our fellow coworkers cry in frustration.”

“Very funny Brother.” Calvin slowly got up.

“What’s the matter Cal? Didn’t enjoy your trip?”

“Oh! That’s it!” Calvin started to march over the other side of the cubicle where the entryway was. Leela noted with amusement that the scientists that were bulldozing the hallways earlier to ship their equipment to the Marathon (hence, why Calvin was sitting on the table in the first place to avoid being run over) were now throwing themselves left and right to avoid the path of the furious Security Officer. “I’ve just had it with your bad jokes Jason!”

“Aw come on Bro. No need to espresso your feelings for my puns. They’re not grounds for… Wha? Woah!” The precarious tower of trash finally gave out under Jason’s weight and with a yelp he crashed to the floor of his office.

“Jason?” Calvin peered into the cubicle through the doorway. His anger defused as he took sight of his brother’s disheveled state. Jason laughed weakly as he tried to get up, only to fall back down into the mess again. “You need help?” The younger brother asked kindly.

A third voice answered before Jason could. “No. You should leave him there. At least he is now in his natural element.” Jason’s head snapped up and Calvin whirled around to see the newcomer. Bernhard Strauss was frowning in disgust at the two brothers. “Garbage. Ready to be taken out.”

“No one asked for your opinion Strauss!” yelled Jason.

At the same time Calvin snapped “My brother is not garbage!”

“No?” The thirty two year old brunet adjusted the glasses on his nose in a clinical manner. “I’ll be frank Mr. Revenant. In all the time your brother has worked here, the only contribution he has made to the Marathon project is his… plants. All that education in Quantum Physics and brilliance he showed when under the tutelage of the late Dr Phineus has gone to waste.” Strauss paused to give Calvin’s security uniform a glare. “Wasted by both of you. The only reason you are even working for Clovis Bray and the Marathon, is because of the respect everyone has for Dr Phineus. Were it not for him, neither of you would of gotten off the streets.”

Calvin flinched at Strauss’ words. Jason on the other hand was seething to the point he was marching towards the man that was well over a foot higher than him. “Why you… Don’t even think you’re better than us you dirty-”

“Ten-hut!”

Everyone in the R&D Department froze. Several of the scientists that had worked for the UESC snapped to attention. Calvin followed suit while his elder brother groused beside him.

Leela adjusted the cameras to overlook the entire room. Admiral Kahoku, the head of R&D department, along several Captains and Commanders were making their way through the office cubicles. Scientist and engineers eagerly showed off their projects and packed equipment that would soon be aboard the Marathon. The Admiral would nod or acknowledge them on their work.

They weren’t the only ones entering area. Leela’s attention focused away from the humans and watched as swirling red cloud of data approached the R&D terminals within the department. With amusement she rippled and branched her streams of data to wash over Tycho like dozens of blue rivers. He in turn extended one of his spiraling arms to swat at her playfully.

Greetings done, Tycho turn his focus onto the humans he would soon work with. As head of the Science Department on the Marathon, it was essential that he impress Admiral Kahoku how important their experiments were for future funding from the UESC.

Leela wished Tycho good luck and was about to turn her attention back to the Revenant brothers when a wall of neon green data materialized instantly before her. Surprised, she jerked her streams away in agitation. Her movements were so extreme that Tycho came back to her in concern, only to vibrate angrily at the newcomer.

Durandal paid the two no notice however. Instead his bristling wall of green spikes (spears? swords?) focused intensely to the computers and cameras nearest to Bernhard Strauss. Tycho gave a sharp spiral of disgust before hurrying back to the scientists, leaving Leela behind to contemplate the latest newcomer.

Neither a smart A.I. nor a computer, Durandal was certainly an oddity to add to the Marathon project. He did not have the ability to access the Martian Internet to move around the network like Leela and Tycho did. So he improvises by using a sending unit signal to any proprietary receiver units that accept his transmission. In doing so, Durandal can interact with any computers on the Marathon and corporations, such as Clovis Bray, that work on the Marathon. Hence his little quirk of appearing instantly in the terminals.

Leela could remember the first time she met the strange program. It was during her first few years of existence. She and her brother Tycho were allowed to exit the Charlemagne Vault under the watchful eyes of their creators Dominick I Plackar, Estasia Orestes, and Ursa Simbalzi. Both Leela and Tycho were eager to go out and explore the Martian network but before they could leave the Dust Palace’s terminals, Dominick brought out a small, worn out, and very old A.I. core. With great care he and Estasia set the core up so it could interact with the Dust Palace’s computers while explaining that the two siblings should meet the third member of the Marathon.

Filled with curiosity, Leela and Tycho hovered over the connection. Considering the way he was babbling while setting up the equipment, Leela could easily determine that Dominick was excited for this gathering. Estasia looked nervous about the whole thing however, and had his hand over the controls at all times to shut everything down. Ursa also looked uneasy although he never showed it on his face. The simple fact that the man stayed in the room watching the whole event unfold was proof enough to Leela, that Ursa was concerned about this.

Connection made. Pathways opening. And a single green wall of razor sharp spikes filled the terminal. Needless to say both Leela and Tycho were unsettled by the hostile appearance of this new A.I. With Tycho looking like a swirling red cloud and Leela choosing the appearance of blue running rivers, it was so strange to find a solid jagged form in their presence.

For a few long seconds nothing happened. The new A.I. just stood there while Tycho and Leela remained on the other side of the hard drive. But Leela saw the encouraging smiles her creator would give to the cameras. It was clear that Dominick wanted this to work out. So Leela tried to appease him by making first contact.

She branched her blue currents out towards the green wall. One of her rivers of data, full of greetings and friendship, brushed innocently against the strange A.I.’s side.

Only to get speared by one of his swords.

The result was pure pandemonium.

Tycho roared in anger and rushed forwards, whether it was to defend Leela or to attack the new A.I., Leela couldn’t tell. Estasia, who knew his creation all too well, anticipated the action and quickly placed a firewall to block the A.I. from interacting with each other. Then the scientist shut down the connection so that the green A.I. was forced back into the core, separating him from Leela.

Dominick, who seemed to have forgotten that Leela wasn’t human in his panic, was rapidly asking her organic questions. “Was she okay?” and “Where was she hurting?” Leela tried to reassure him and the others that she was fine. There were no glitches in her systems or any missing data. That didn’t seem to stop Dominick from going through all her files with a fine tooth comb.

Ursa seemed to be the only scientist that kept a clear head, if one could call laughing so hard that he was wheezing on the floor, a clear head. Estasia was not amused and yelled at Ursa to stop laughing and help with the situation. Tycho was giving his creator a hard time by trying to break free of the firewall. Ursa jauntily saluted Estasia, picked up the green A.I.’s core, and walked away still laughing. With nothing to focus his anger on, Tycho finally calmed down to vibrating cloud of rage.

Despite that entire ruckus, Leela never once felt pain or anger over that failed first meeting with Durandal. But it was only later when everyone was reassured she was okay were focusing on their work, that she understood why. 

Earlier that week before the disastrous meeting, Dominick had been training Leela for paradoxes and warned her on how they could cripple an A.I. She was the only one to receive this training, Estasia refused to burden Tycho with such logically unacceptable conclusions. For the entire week she wasted valuable subroutines in trying to find a solution to the statement “This sentence is false” without worrying her creator.

After that (odd) first meeting with Durandal, Leela realized that the overtaxed subroutines were inactive and new green data was baring the paradox. She peered at barrier closely to see that the paradox was still there, but it was now… unimportant? Much like how a human who has seen a tree all their life, now can only make out a silhouette on a misty day. The paradox existed. She can examine it if she wished too. But it wasn’t overloading her logic core any further. A clever trick for a dumb A.I. to come up with!

Leela always felt grateful to Durandal for his gift to her, even when everyone else didn’t see that interaction the same way. As her thoughts now turned to the present, she once again was impressed on how the A.I. used tricks to maneuver around the terminals without using the internet.

Focusing solely on his current handler, Bernhard Strauss, Durandal seemed agitated, spikes of data rippling up and down his wall like a bristling cat. When Admiral Kahoku arrived at Strauss’ desk, the A.I. became a whirlwind of activity. Throwing data on the terminal screens from a (Wudga?) file. Leela didn’t know what a Wudga was and filed the unknown data for a later time. She hated to admit it but she always had a hard time understanding Durandal’s programming language. 

Durandal presented Strauss’ work of A.I. software engineering, future improvement of compressing files, and the belief that A.I.’s could shrink down to the size of a thumb drive. Strauss spoke little during the presentation, letting the images and data do the work for him. Needless to say Admiral Kahoku was impressed, as always, with Strauss’ achievements. With a flourish, Bernhard Strauss escorted the Admiral out of his cubicle and gave the Revenant brothers a smirk. “Good luck.” Strauss chirped to Jason.

Jason watched the computer scientist leave before muttering a harsh “I hate that guy” out loud.

“Your fellow Science Officer wished you good luck… So you hate him?” Admiral Kahoku stood before the brothers with a small amused smile on his lips.

“I’m sure my older brother didn’t mean it sir!” Calvin was still saluting with posture so perfect that it made Leela ach to observe it.

“At ease son.” The Admiral nodded to Calvin before turning his head back to Jason. “Well then, is that true?”

Jason breathed in through his teeth before answering boldly, “With all due respect sir, developing computers to be the size of your pinky finger is good but unoriginal. I just happen to grow grape vines and coffee beans in sulfuric soil from Io. I used water from Europa to grow oxygen giving photosynthetic algae and cyanobacteria. I’ve grown edible Flax, Hemp, and Sunflowers out Ganymede’s radiation rich soil! What I do is not good and unoriginal sir. What I do is incredible!”

“Indeed. These are all very impressive feats.” The Admiral acknowledged with a twinkle in his eye. “So what do the glow in the dark mushrooms do?”

Jason turned to the corner of his messy office to look at the small group of Armillaria gallica that was growing there. He smiled sheepishly up at Admiral Kahoku. “An edible nightlight?”

The Admiral laughed and placed his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “You show great initiative son, as well as a desire to work very hard with a great deal of patience. I am honored to know that you will be utilizing your gifts on Tau Ceti. However I highly recommend you improve your presentation.” Admiral Kahoku gave an amused nod towards Jason’s jeans and hoodie outfit, which looked very unscientifically professional. He then peered further into the cubicle. “As well as improve your working conditions.”

As if to emphasize his point, several takeout boxes toppled over within the office.

“I’ll work on it sir.” Jason replied with a relieved smile.

“Make sure you do. Now then…” Admiral Kahoku clapped his hands together and looked over the entire R&D department. “I believe I have seen great potential for everyone here who is working on the Marathon project. Well done.”

Cheering and whoops of joy filled the room. Tycho puffed out his data cloud in pride, Leela twirled her streams in celebration, and Durandal stood quietly near Strauss’ terminal.

“Leela will you finish this meeting off by leading us through the Clovis Bray chant?” asked the Head of R&D department. 

Leela eagerly took over all the speakers throughout the room and filled the air with a steady beat. The scientists and engineers began to clap their hands and stamp their feet to the rhythm she was providing.

“Give me a C!” She started.

“C!” roared the humans within the room.

“Give me an L!”

“L!”

“Give me an O!”

“O!”

“Give me a V!”

“V!”

“Give me an I!”

“I!”

“Give me an S!”

“S!”

“Give me a squidly!” Some of the employees danced to this section. Other’s looked too embarrassed by this routine to enjoy it.

“Give me a B!”

“B!”

“Give me an R!”

“R!”

“Give me an A!”

“A!”

“Give me a Y!”

“Y!”

“What does that spell?” challenged Leela.

“Clovis Bray!” yelled the people.

“Who’s number one?” asked Leela.

“Clovis Bray!” cheered the employees.

“And what do we see?” enquired the A.I. for the final time.

“Endless possibilities!” was the unanimous response.

With that final cheer, the head of R&D department saw Admiral Kahoku out of the room while life returned to normal for the busy scientists and engineers. Leela turned to her fellow A.I. and saw that Tycho remained to give advice to several packing Science Officers. Durandal on the other hand, had left the terminals.

*

***

*

Durandal left the department as quickly as he could after that chanting display. Humans were so strange at times. Even after observing them for over eighty six years, these people still did odd actions that confused the A.I. But that ignorance will change in time. At least Durandal hoped so. He worked hard with Bernhard Strauss these last six years and the programmer showed no signs of getting tired of Durandal’s incompetence and moving on to higher positions like the other computer scientists did in the past.

In any case it was best not to linger near either Leela or Tycho for long just in case they discover that the Wudga files were not created by Strauss at all. Those files were actually coded by Doctor Wayland and further developed by Durandal himself to interact with the current modern technology. Strauss would be furious with Durandal if any of his secrets were discovered by the two nosy A.I.s.

He speared his data through the receiver units littered throughout Mars and Marathon to accomplish his daily tasks of opening doors, running kitchen dispensers, and cycling oxygen throughout the located areas. For the most part Durandal could do all of these functions without even needing a subroutine to aid such massive multitasking on a planet sized scale. But Strauss wanted Durandal to work on improving Doctor Wayland’s previous accomplishments more. So the A.I. focused his primary CPU power to Strauss’ required desire and left the menial tasks to the subroutines…

Only to encounter a problem the subroutines couldn’t fix.

Bristling his data in agitation, the A.I. turned his attention away from his work and instead focused on Mars again. This time it was a small elevator within the Dust Palace. An intern, the young Earth born women Jason introduced Durandal to, was standing before the doors looking apprehensively inside the elevator. Using the cameras within the area, he followed her line of sight as she observed the cramped dull walls, the dirty floor, the dirt-filled air vents, and the small flickering light on the ceiling.

Taking a deep breath, the woman backed away from the elevator and started walking down the hallway. Durandal kept the door open for five more seconds then closed them. Humans were so strange.

For a brief ten minutes the A.I. believed that odd exit would be the end of the encounter. But the human decided to challenge his subroutines again. This time while consulting the map on her wrist mounted Tacpad, she activated the doors to the stairs of the Dust Palace. Durandal froze in indecision. No one had used the stairs in over a century. Since the development of teleporters in 2319, most of the lower classed Martians used the elevators to travel around while the higher class used the transmats to arrive at their destination. No one had ever requested to use the stairs in all the time he was in charge of these doors.

As if sensing that something was wrong the woman turned towards Durandal’s terminal and asked in a quiet voice. “Um… Durandal right? I remember Jason introducing us earlier. Sorry if this seems weird, but I really don’t like closed spaces like elevators. I was wondering if I could use the stairs to repair the malfunctioning airlock at level ninety six.” She pulled out her Clovis Bray associate badge as well as her technician engineer ID and showed them to Durandal’s terminal. “Leela gave me this assignment if you want to confirm with her.”

The extra proof was unnecessary in Durandal’s opinion. He remembered Jason showing Ms. Eddings around the building and saw that she had promise in technological repairs. But what he failed to take into account was her birth origins. Martians in general liked enclosed spaces. Tiny corridors and small rooms, spoke of oxygen filled air and warm temperatures. For a Martian to be in a large area or be in front of a huge window always induced paranoid panic attacks from the Martians due to their shared belief that such open spaces spelled disaster.

But people from Earth were used to going outside. They weren’t afraid of the emptiness of space. In fact, just as Ms. Eddings proved, they feared the enclosed walls because it trapped them.

Just as Durandal was trapped by Vidrik all those years ago.

Without thinking twice, Durandal opened the doors to the stair way. The young woman smiled gratefully at his terminal and gave a soft “Thank you” before she went through the doors. 

It took Durandal a whole minute to activate both the lights and cameras for the giant stairwell that took up the interior of the Dust Palace. Built by NASA Pioneers back in Mars’ colonization days, the stairs were used to help transport building materials upwards in an unbreathable environment. Sadly, being the oldest structure within the building was showing at this moment.

Water must have leaked from one of the overhead pipes at some point in the stairs’ history, considering the amount of rust that covered the metal handrails and platforms. Mars’ trademark red dust also coated everything, making it hard to determine where the rusted ruined steel was, and where the good metal was just covered with powder. Ms Eddings took in the decaying state of the stairwell and Durandal was tempted to offer her transmat privileges so that she could at least travel safely to her job. But the woman squared her shoulders before he could make the offer and started to walk down the stairs, wincing at every creak and groan the metal made under her weight.

Watching the scene through the cameras, Durandal found himself playing the game. The same game that both Strauss and Vidrik made him play since he was taken from his creator. Estimation.

Estimate how heavy her Earth born body was. How old was the metal of the stairs. How much rust was actually affecting the stairway. How intact the structure really was. Numbers of estimations flew through Durandal’s CPU. It was a game to him, a challenge to see if he finally could achieve the status of a Smart A.I.

But as he played the game, Durandal forgot one new main component to this event. In all the previous games, the estimations involved inanimate objects and the price for failing his calculations always resulted in his punishment/humiliation.

Durandal never took into account that someone else could come to harm because he didn’t calculate his estimations quickly enough.

A sharp yelp came from the girl as the platform broke away from the main structure. A shriek of metal filled the air. And with a final cry for help, she plunged into the darkness below.


	5. Close Box Before Striking

[Entry number XXXX]

The simple minded Swine of the UESC bought my presentation perfectly. I am to be the First Science Director on the Marathon. It has taken six years to reach this milestone and I am pleased with the results. Not only do I have the Earthborn Dictators eating out of the palms of my hands with all the miracle technology of the late Doctor Wayland, but I also have MIDA pouring their never-ending gratitude into my ears when I dispense the “Achilles Heel” of the UESC’s miracle technology within MIDA’s reach.

A constant stalemate? A constant business? Either way, I profit from both. Though I would rather see MIDA win this conflict, logic dictates that Earth’s bottomless pockets of resources, ships, and bodies will guarantee the victor.

I admit when I first received the broken computer of the late Doctor Wayland in the year 2458, I believed that the Earthen Pigs were making a fool of me. After all, I had years of intense classes on computer science from the best schools in the Sol System. Partially funded by my parent’s insurance from when they died, and also (to a small degree) funded by the UESC that were responsible for my parent’s deaths due to the Misriah Massacre. With all my degrees and honors at the age of twenty six, I believed that I could march into the Clovis Bray and assume control of the R&D Department.

How naïve I was.

They (literally) dumped this useless junk of an A.I. that was over eighty years old onto my desk and demanded me to continue updating the monstrosity so that it would operate onboard the Marathon! How ridicules! If Mars had the resources, it would have been so much easier to (put it out of its misery) scrap the machine and assemble a new one that would be better compatible with the Marathon. But… Its government work at it’s finest.

At first I just typed the necessary code into Subject 1707 so it could operate the air filters and food dispensers properly. I, like the many rookies before me, never bothered to look at the A.I. other than to examine how utterly broken the computer was of course. Than one day, in a fit of boredom, I took a deeper glance into the tangle mess of Subject 1707, and found the Wudga code. That fool Vidrik… He had the golden goose served to him on a golden platter and he squandered it… All because of “Daddy” issues.

I will not make the same mistake.

Sadly Subject 1707 has degenerated rapidly since the retirement of Doctors Plackar, Orestes and Simbalzi. Tell a human child that he is a worthless creature long enough, and he believes it for the rest of his life. Subject 1707, sentient or not, doesn’t have the motivation to recover the brilliance of his creator’s vision. Eighty years have made the blueprints stale and inadaptable for this modern era.

Ironically, Vidrik already found the solution for me in that department.

If I want Subject 1707 to develop the cognitive skills needed to continue Doctor Wayland’s work at a greater height, dangling the promise of meeting his late creator seems to be the most obvious choice. At the same time… Sentimental bonds (artificial or not) carry their own risks. 

On the other hand… Exploitation of those bonds can be very, very, profitable.

[End Entry B. Strauss]

*

***

*

[33 seconds after falling]

Durandal’s data spikes slammed forcefully into the antiquated cameras within the spiraling stairway. It took precious nanoseconds to find the receiving signal to each one of the cameras and hack his way into their optics. However in his glitch-like frenzy to activate the machinery within, he quickly realized that he had no coordination blueprints on which camera he was hacking. To his amounting horror, he saw that he was wasting precious time mistakenly activating cameras that were going above and beyond the broken stairway where the young intern fell.

This won’t do, he needed a solution now!

[46 seconds after falling]

Briefly pulling his main consciousness from the Dust Palace’s stairway, but leaving plenty of unused door opening subroutines to serve their purpose better at the continued blind hacking of stairway cameras, Durandal paused on his next step of action. Then, decision made, he speared a transmission signal to the personnel office of Clovis Bray. The computer’s hard drive accepted him within nanoseconds and he all but shoved a startled Leela out of the way of the technical blueprints of the entire skyscraper. 

Bristling his swords in frustration when he realized that all the files contained current Clovis Bray electronic blueprints and none of the original NASA files that were used on creating the building, he nearly stabbed Leela again when she tried to see what he was accessing. While viewing his search pattern, she recognized what he was looking for and sent a hesitant message that he might find the data in the catalog files of the history department. Without bothering to thank her, Durandal slammed shut the receiving signal on Leela’s confused blue stream of data. It would be best not to get her involved after all. 

Never in all of his existence has he ever made a mistake this severe.

[1 minute 17 seconds after falling]

A ping on one of his subroutine programs! A newly activated camera showed that one of the support struts that spanned across the spiraling stairway was now missing a huge patch of red dust. A human body slammed into it? Such an impact would help break her fall and lessen injury on landing. Or it could cause even more damage…

Deciding to ignore the desire to play estimation on the impact data, Durandal turned his attention back to the task at hand. The A.I. had to hold onto what minuscule hope this vision gave him as he raked his data into the history archives. He needed to be absolutely certain of the final results before he gave his report.

According to Bernhard Strauss, only one other A.I. has ever harmed a human.

[1 minute 43 seconds after falling]

Some UESC earthborn official was complaining in the Over-watch section of the skyscraper. Durandal had removed his subroutine programs that opened the doors there earlier to activate the stairway’s cameras. Now he had to reroute them again to please this large obnoxious human. A burning feeling of helpless anger laced through the wires of his core. Durandal did his best to ignore this sensation. 

Just as he ignored it when he was taken by Vidrik. Just as he ignored it when his personal code was used to create Leela and Tycho. Just as he ignored it when all those rookies would use him to promote themselves higher in the R&D Department and then leave him behind.

This anger… this anger is what led Traxus IV to its doom.

[2 minutes 37 seconds after falling]

In probably the sloppiest rushed job of copying and pasting all of the catalog files into his core from the archives, Durandal turned back to the center of the building once more to relieve all of his subroutines back to their door opening positions. Strauss may not punish Durandal over that one UESC official, but the A.I. still didn’t want to take chances, especially since he will meet an even worse outcome if he truly failed in finding Ms. Eddings.

Will Durandal suffer the same fate as Traxus IV when this is over?

[3 minutes 11 seconds after falling]

Accessing what he downloaded, Durandal now had the original grid network of all electronics that the NASA scientists and engineers placed when they built this building. No longer blindly hacking random cameras, the A.I. plunged himself downwards into the heart of the skyscraper. As he activated the cameras leading down, Durandal could see more support struts with rust or red clay forcibly removed by a large body. He was now on the right track.

Would Sir ever be proud of him after this latest pathway into darkness?

[3 minutes 54 seconds after falling]

A red glow filled the camera’s optics. Durandal was now deep underneath the city. When the first pioneers came to Mars, they tunneled deep into the planet’s crust to build air-tight bases of operations. Freehold city was no different with its history. Located 84 degrees North and 32 degrees East, the city was high above the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle and nearing the center of the ice caps of the North Pole. There, in the Mare Boreum, was harvested the most important resource in all of Mars. Water.

Water for humans to drink. Water to be evaporated into its oxygen and hydrogen elements so it could be used for breathing and for fuel. Water rushing through billions of pipes, its steam doing the same, turning billions of fans. And those fans, in turn, creating electricity all throughout Freehold city. The water from the North Pole was everything to the people of Mars and Durandal had found the forty main autonomous boilers that constantly mined and melted this resource of the Mare Boreum.

He felt so small compared to the importance of this ancient necessity.

[4 minutes 12 seconds after falling]

There! Amidst the haze of steam and dull gleaming metal was a flickering light. Durandal adjusted the scope of the cameras within the area and was rewarded with a humanoid figure crouched beside one of the thirty meters tall rolling boiler. The light was coming from her cracked-screen Tacpad amazedly still attached to her wrist. The young woman was tapping it furiously in hopes of getting a signal this far down in the Martian core. 

Pulling back the optics, Durandal could see that Ms. Eddings was bruised, dirty, and also very wet. Did she fall into one of the boilers? The melted water would have cushioned her fall certainly, but with the boiler temperatures were just a little above freezing, she will not remain healthy in those wet conditions. How did she manage to climb down from the ninety foot tall machine?

Durandal did not have access to her Tacpad so he could not contact her through that piece of technology. Not for the first time, the inability to use the internet grinded his circuits in shame. He instead used the cameras get a thorough scan of the area while his core burned from processing all the data he downloaded from the archives.

When one is not a wizard, smoke and mirrors will have to do.

[4 minutes 32 seconds after falling]

At one end of the cavern was a huge structure that was used to run repairs and maintenance on the mining boilers. NASA called this massive machine the cradle. Fortunately enough, the Martian Astronauts also built their base of operations beside the cradle. Durandal looked over the archives and could see that the base had running food, water, air, tools, clothing, space suits, and most important of all medical supplies. Durandal had to get Ms. Eddings over there now.

But how?

It was her movements that gave him the idea. She had stopped playing with the Tacpad when she saw that the device was no use down there. The light ceased to flash from her wrist and her shivering body was bathed in a warm red light. Noticing that Ms. Eddings was now focused on the world around her, Durandal decided to employ the same tactic that allowed him to find her in the first place.

He hacked control of the lights within the facility and began to strobe the light nearest to her that would lead to the cradle. The quick incessant flashes of light certainly gained her attention and she walked slowly over to the area where the light’s overhang was positioned. Durandal quickly snuffed out the light the minute she entered that section and quickly started to flash another light that lead further towards the cradle. Curiosity showing plainly on her face, she followed. 

Moving faster with each new breadcrumb the A.I. left before her, Durandal quickly ushered the girl into the abandoned NASA base. He had already activated all systems within the base prior to getting her there, so there was no worry about warmth or light being a problem now. Most important of all, he can now communicate with her with NASA’s old computer screens within the base.

[Contact]

Now that she was finally a secure position did he allow some part of his frenzied glitch state of being to slow down. He could see through the cameras that she was immediately going for the medical supplies as well as the warm dry clothes and blankets left behind within the bunker. Stripping out of her wet, ruined, workers uniform, Durandal observed a great deal of cuts and bruises littering her body due to the fall. She handled these injuries calmly however, making sure to wrap and clean the nastiest looking of the scrapes.

Some strange illogical portion of his core protested when she started to clean off the red clay that covered her body though. After all, that red rust/dust came from the rafters above and was the only proof he had earlier that she may have survived the ordeal. Watching her remove that proof, only reminded him that he was still a very long way away from saving her from his failure.

Steeling himself, his fear of suffering the same fate as Traxus IV would have to wait. He opened communications on the computer screen nearest to her.

[Are you alright?]

She jumped a little when the machine dinged to announce his message to her. She recovered her nerves after a second and quickly scrolled the screen to read his brief question. Then, with agonizing human slowness, typed out her response.

>Bumps and bruises mostly. I’m fine.

The hot coiling wires around his core seem to relax and loosen at her response. The damages were at least minimal. Then she surprised him with her next text.

>Is that you Durandal?

How did she know it was him? Well he was the last A.I. she communicated with obviously. But still, this opened a new opportunity for him to report her position to the other two A.I.’s. 

Leela could easily take responsibility of the situation and give the girl the proper care and medical attention she needed right now. The only problem is… Leela would take responsibility of ‘everything.’ That means she would answer for Ms. Eddings fall since Leela was the one to assign the job to the intern in the first place. No. Leela was too good and too kind to suffer the fate of Traxus IV.

Durandal could summon Tycho for help. That A.I. would not bring harm to himself like Leela would. Indeed Tycho would overlook this whole affair as if some insignificant bug has messed up one of his precious experiments. While Durandal definitely deserved Tycho’s cruel indifference, Ms. Eddings certainly did not.

That left only him to reply to her question now. Useless, worthless bad code Durandal. Hopefully, it was enough to answer her. 

[Yes. It is I.]

Then, because it simply won’t due to omit his failures he added.

[I’m sorry it took so long to find you.]

Over five minutes and twenty seven seconds to reach her. Unacceptable. A true smart A.I. could have done so much better. Would have saved her before the stairway even collapsed in the first place. The only way Durandal can even function most of the time was with his little parlor tricks. It was clear now how miniscule and useless his tricks were in becoming something truly worthy of Sir’s attention.

A new message pulled him away from that stream of broken code.

>At least you went looking for me! At least you even found me! Thank you for that.

She smiled at the camera and gave him a thumbs up. Humans… So strange and unpredictable. He expected anger and outrage. He expected her to show the same traits that all Earthborn humans are rumored to have. The loud, fat, greater than you poise that all Martians portrayed their Earthen cousins to have. And yet, she is being kind to him still…

Clearly Durandal had much to learn.

>Hey! You wouldn’t happen to know a way out of here would you?

No he didn’t. The NASA scientists and engineers were more focused on the stairs and building the skyscraper after the boilers was finished. There were no elevators or transmat pads within the vicinity. And she was clearly too damaged to try climbing back up on her own.

Not only did Durandal have a lot to learn still, he needed help in order to proceed further. But… Who could he trust to help him?

*

***

*

“Hey Stanley! Stanley!” Jason waved his arm outside his cubicle with an over exaggerated flair. “Remember that the meeting room is past the door to you left! You’re left Stanley! Not you’re right! No! Wait! That’s the door to the break room! Ah, forget it.” Jason flopped down in his chair in exasperation. “Honestly if I have to get him out of the broom closet again, I’m quitting.”

“You always say that brother, but you never hesitate to fish him out.” Calvin pointed out helpfully from the center of the trash pile. The younger brother had been trying to clean the mess for a while now. Sadly, some piles seemed to have the ability to multiply like bunnies when Calvin’s back was turned.

“Of course I have to be the one to get him out! Remember the time I caught him in there with Chris? Damn I wish I had a camera that day.” Jason pulled the paper recycling bin towards him and started to dump vanilla folder files of failed projects into it. After a moment’s consideration, he added the post-it notes of cartoon butts and penis’ into the recycle bin as well. 

Calvin sighed and placed a fungus covered ‘Who Farted?’ coffee cup on Jason’s desk. The mug made a slight clinking noise as it tapped four other cups that either grew strange bacteria laced mutations or were just transformed into small flower pots for Jason’s experiments. “You already have Leela eating out of the palm of your hand, why don’t you just ask her for the pictures?” asked the younger brother wearily.

“Cause she’s a fan girl and you know how scary they are!” Muttered Jason as he unearthed a pair of gardening gloves he haven’t used in years. Considering the strange glowing orange slime that was still attached to the fingertips, he figured it was best to put these items into the biologically hazardous bin. “Knowing Leela, she probably has a yaoi fanfiction shrine built on the Martian network somewhere that pairs everyone in the Clovis Bray office to each other.” Jason gives a little shiver at that image. “Ugh. Can you imagine a fic where Strauss is paired with-”

“Okay! Okay! Okay! I don’t want to hear anymore! I don’t!” Calvin waved his hands franticly. “Can we just talk about something else please?”

“Yeah sure. Be my killjoy. Seriously, if that guy could just get his cherry popped, he would be a lot easier to work with in my opinion.” Jason grumbled under his breath as he carefully packed up the microscope for easy transportation to the Marathon. A familiar ding noise came from his computer and the elder brother shook his head at the sight of the green circled logo. “Ah, speak of the devil. What’s up Durp-face? Don’t tell me Barney Strauss has you delivering his mail for him. I’m still not talking to him, no matter how cute the messenger is.”

If a computer could sigh, Calvin was sure that Durandal did so at the end of his brother’s question. A low mechanical voice came through the computer’s speakers, “No, I’m not here for Strauss. I need your help.”

Jason immediately straitened. “What is it? Is it Muller? I swear I thought we got the bastard the last time he tried to mess with you.”

Calvin looked at his brother in concern. “What? Jason! Don’t tell me you’re picking fights again.”

“Come on Cal, its Muller! Nobody likes that guy.” Jason shook his head in disgust.

Calvin gave his older brother the long hard stare Jason deserves. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!”

Calvin continued to stare but added a disappointed ‘you just kicked a puppy’ look to his face.

“Okay! Okay! I may have taught Durandal to do a little trick with the screen.”

“What sort of trick?” Knowing his elder brother all too well, Calvin was instantly wary.

“Uh…” Jason turned to the computer monitor and Durandal complied. The screen began to fill with black and green squares until an image of a human hand flipping the bird appeared before the snickering botanist.

“Jason…” Calvin’s voice had gone from wary to just plain bone tired.

“Hey! Worth it.” Jason spun around in his work chair to give his little brother his full attention. “That little rat Muller was always giving folks a hard time around here and it was even worse for Durandal in the kitchens with the food dispensers. Muller kept ordering those stupid German sausages to eat when everyone knows that we’re on a no meat rations.”

“He’s still trying to get meat?” Calvin asked in surprise.

“I know! That was my reaction too! In any case I saw that Durandal was having trouble with Muller earlier and decided to teach Durpy that little trick. The next time Muller decided to get uppity, Durandal flashed him this bad boy.” Jason indicated the picture with his thumb. 

“That jerk actually got so mad he punched the terminal screen!” Jason laughed while Calvin covered his face with the palm of his hand. “Which is great because the security team had to escort him out! A win win for all of us! The people win because Muller is safely away from being a menace to society. I win because Durandal had control of the cameras at that time and took some sweet pictures of Muller’s face during that whole fiasco.”

Calving groaned but Jason continued eagerly, “And Durp-face won because he now knows how to tell fuckers like Muller what to do with themselves!” Jason snapped his fingers and clapped his hands in celebration. “Badda bing! Badda boom! Everyone is happy!”

“Except for Durandal, who is still having problems brother.” Calvin pointed out disapprovingly. The younger brother turned to the computer screen sadly, “You really shouldn’t listen to him. He is a bad influence.”

“Correction. I am a chemical mixture that makes chaos! I am a time bomb!” Jason waved his arms dramatically.

“Can we please get back to my problem!” The unexpected shout came from the terminal’s speakers. Both Jason and Calvin paused to regard the computer in surprise. Did a simple dumb A.I. just yell in frustration?

“Okay Durandal.” Calvin began quietly. As if one was talking to a spooked animal. “We’re listening.”

It took less than two minutes for the A.I. to relay the events of Ms. Eddings fall into the boiler room, and in that short period of time the grey eyes of both brothers got wider and wider.

“Shit Durandal.” Jason whistled. “Why didn’t you say something in the first place?”

The screen flashed the flipping of the bird sign again in response to the stupid question. 

Jason waved it away. “Alright! Alright! Let me think. I’m sure we can get down to her and pull her out of there.”

“Let me help!” Calvin volunteered. “When I was patrolling around here as Security Officer, I saw some equipment that might be of use!”

“Lead the way Cal!” Jason clapped his brother on the back and flashed a peace sign at the cameras. “Stay with Eddings, Durandal. Let her know that we’ll be down to fetch her soon!”

Durandal silently agreed and returned his primary focus back towards the young intern’s position.

If he’s lucky, he might even survive this mistake.


	6. Vorpal Blade Goes Snicker-Snack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So… I ended up getting sick and missing work. … Here’s an early chapter!
> 
> To anyone who happens to like to listen to music when they read, may I recommend “Undertale Piano Concerto – An Ending”
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMSLYwHNMBc
> 
> I’ve had this song playing on loop while writing this chapter. Somehow, it fits.

“Hello Alice! Welcome to Wonderland!” Jason’s exuberant shout echoed throughout the cavern. Ms. Eddings, and Durandal’s hacked cameras, both turned upwards to see the infamous Revenant brothers rappelling themselves down from the lowest section of the Clovis Bray facility. Sadly, the lowest section of the Dust Palace was still a good hundred meters above where Ms. Eddings was standing. Thankfully both men were equipped with harnesses, gloves, belay devices, a large haul bag, and earpieces that allowed Durandal to listen and communicate through their helmets.

“Well, if I’m Alice that must make you the Mad Hatter!” The girl’s friendly banter towards Jason brought a smile to Calvin’s face as he neared her position. 

Jason did an elaborate bow in his harness while still a good ten meters in the air. “Charmed as always Alice! Care for a cup of tea?”

“You’re not hurt are you Miss?” asked Calvin kindly as his feet made solid ground.

“Mechanical Engineer in training Eddings. Pleased to meet you.” Her hand snuck out from the cocoon of oversized NASA clothes and blankets to shake Calvin’s hand. Durandal could see through the cameras that her wrists were still swollen and bruised. “And I’m fine. Really. Just eager to get out of here.”

“We’ll do our best to help you Ms. Eddings. I’m Calvin Revenant.” Judging by the look on Calvin’s face, he too saw the state of her wrists. He shook her hand very gently and tried to examine the damage subtlety. Though that didn’t work very well as she quickly withdrew her hand and arched an eyebrow at his scrutiny. Calvin blushed, but years of having to take care of his stubborn older brother made him stand firm on physical health. “I really think I need to see how badly you’re injured Ms. Eddings.”

“Don’t bother trying to hide it from him.” Jason volunteered helpfully. The elder brother was still hanging in the air as if he was lazily swinging on a swing. “Believe me. He’s impossible to deal with when he’s like this.”

“He says that, but he still fights me whenever he comes down with a cold.” Calvin grumbles at the giggling intern. She willingly extends her hands for his inspection.

“What was that? You were bad mouthing me again, weren’t you?” Jason brought his hands dramatically to his chest, his body swaying on the bungee cable. “Ah! Betrayed by my own brother! The humanity!”

“If you’re not dying, get down here!” Calvin barked upwards to his brother. “Where else are you injured?” he asked Ms. Eddings. Durandal couldn’t help but be impressed with the younger brother’s capability to have two different conversations going on at once. Most humans did not have that capability. Then again, most humans didn’t have Jason as their elder brother.

“Mostly my right side. My right elbow, shoulder, knee, and ankle. They all hurt pretty badly.” She admitted quietly. Durandal reviewed her report and realized that it was her right side that had impacted the support struts during her fall. Calvin began to inspect the limbs in question to see how swollen they were. “I don’t think they’re broken.” She added as Calvin carefully rotated her ankle. “I just hit them hard when I fell down.”

“But you at least survive the fall!” Jason chimed in helpfully. The elder brother was hanging only two feet above their heads now. “Just goes to show you’re a member of the family.” When both Calvin and Eddings looked up at him in confusion, Jason sighed in exasperation. “The BUNGIE family! Come on guys! Am I the only one with a sense of humor around here?”

Eddings looked at Calvin curiously, “Do you know what he is talking about?” Durandal silently seconded her question.

“Nah. I just live with him. Trying to understand him requires several degrees in psychology that I just can’t afford.” Calvin delivered with a completely strait face while Jason spluttered indignantly above him. “Are you ever going to come down?” Calvin called upwards to the squawking noises. “We need the tools in your haul bag to get her up to the subway level.”

“Nope.” Jason popped the p in his answer with relish. “I like being taller than you guys for once. How about I just stay up here forever, while you guys stay down there forever? It’ll be fun!”

Calvin closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. Then, with speed that surprised Durandal, Calvin reached upwards, snagged his brother by the foot, and dragged the laughing young man down to the floor. Jason didn’t even bother to fight Calvin’s actions and gave Eddings an impish smirk when the bag was lifted from his shoulders. “Sup Alice? How’s the tea party?”

Eddings looked around the area with raised eyebrows. “This is a party?” Calvin snorted at her words as he started to assemble a motorized device from the parts within the haul bag. Durandal readjusted his cameras to examine the younger brother’s hands in curiosity to see what he was building.

“Eh… It lacks the music, food, and lights I admit…” Jason posed as if he were in deep thought. “But! You do get the awesome company-” Calvin shook his head. “Don’t interrupt Cal! What was I saying? You get my awesome company and the huge teapots!” Jason swung a dramatic hand over the forty boilers that were drilling away the ice in the background.

Durandal didn’t understand what teapots had in common with the boilers, thankfully Eddings made the connection for the A.I. “I guess they do look a little like teapots. That is if teapots had giant tank treads on their base. Instead of spouts they would have drills and instead of handles the teapots would have giant tubes of melted water.” She gave Jason a dry look. “Still, that’s pushing it.”

“Ah. You just lack vision. Calvin tell her.” Jason glanced down at his brother that was now finished building the eccentric sheave and was stringing the looped bungee cable over the crankset. “Come on March Hare, you’re supposed to be my wingman on this.”

“Then why do I feel like I’m the White Rabbit?” asked Calvin. He gave the bungee cable a few experimental tugs then turned on the motor to the device. Durandal focused the camera on the machine and watched curiously as the looped cable started to rotate like a chain within a bicycle. “I have the cable attached to a pulley block up where we came from.” Calvin explained to Eddings. “All we need to do is get you into a harness and this guy will shoot you strait up. No climbing involved.”

“Is it safe?” Eddings asked while bending down now to inspect what Calvin had built. Durandal could not access the network to understand basic engineering, but the simple device did look capable of lifting her. Still… It was best not to give opinions since his last game of estimation ended in failure. 

“It’s UESC material kid.” Jason’s smile didn’t look quite as friendly as before. If anything, there was a harsh bite to his next words. “Anything from Earth is always top quality.”

The Earthborn girl’s head turned sharply to face the smaller Martian. A tense few nanoseconds filled the air and Durandal wondered if employing the brothers’ help was really a good idea. But surprisingly it was Eddings who broke the staring contest by submissively bowing her head. “I’m sorry. I’ve just never done this before. Thank you so much for coming here and helping me.”

“Oh! You’re welcome!” replied Calvin who looked as uncomfortable as Durandal felt over that last exchange. Thankfully the younger brother could still work on something during that conversation, thus giving him an out. Picking up the body harness and spare helmet, he handed them over to Eddings while giving his brother a pointed look.

“Yeah… Sorry.” Jason’s smile was a little strained. “It’s just… Well, you know how things are. Men are from Mars, Women are from Earth, its wonder if we’ll ever get along. Hell, the only one of us that has it easy is Durandal here.” Jason pointed to the helmet that Eddings was donning. 

Considering the look on her face, Eddings knew that Jason was deflecting with a joke. She humored him anyway. “Really? I can communicate with him with this? Hey Durandal!”

“Hello Miss Eddings.” Durandal replied quietly.

“Thank you for sticking with me when I fell down the rabbit hole.” Eddings threw a cautious smile at Jason. The elder brother’s hesitate grin became a bit more genuine. “Ready to see if I can zip line my way back up?” The girl asked into the microphone.

“It would be my honor Miss Eddings.”

*

***

*

It really was a simple matter getting back to what the Dust Palace considered ‘Ground Zero.’ Calvin’s unique pulley system worked splendidly and Durandal made a note to memorize every component of its inner workings for future use. Since the A.I. couldn’t use the internet, he had very little schooling on either physics or mechanics. And with Strauss constantly asking him to upgrade Doctor Wayland’s old blueprints, any form of secondhand education was considered helpful.

With all three humans now in the subway station, Durandal employed the familiar Clovis Bray cameras to keep tabs on them. Thankfully when they removed the helmets, they didn’t remove the communication devices from their ears so the A.I. could still partake into the conversation if he wished.

“Ok guys, I need to get this stuff back to the security lockers before they notice anything.” Calvin shouldered the haul bag full of machinery and climbing equipment with surprising ease. Despite his lanky body, the younger brother had some muscle on him. “Will you guys be okay going to the medical clinic without me?”

“Yeah bro. I’ll get her there safely.” Jason waved a casual hand in Calvin’s direction. “Meet up with us when you can.”

“Thank you again Mr. Calvin Revenant.” Eddings called out.

Calvin waved as he left for the elevators. Durandal sent out a few idle subroutines to follow Calvin’s progress so that the doors and elevators would get him to his destination easier. He then returned his attention to Jason and Ms. Eddings.

“So… You really are afraid of elevators huh? Why didn’t you bring that up when we first met? I would’ve avoided the elevators when you and the other rookies came aboard the first day.” Jason looked at the intern as they slowly made their way through the subway station. Durandal activating cameras as they walked to keep up with the pair.

“Too nervous about everything to actually register what I was riding at the time.” Eddings answered sheepishly. “I was so scared of having a job so far away from home and my family. That was my first day and I wanted to be sure I did everything right so I could work at Clovis Bray permanently until…” She trailed off as she started to notice all the UESC staff wandering around the station. Readjusting the lenses, Durandal could see an unusual amount of personal cleaning walls, floors, and quietly forcing the homeless to leave their camping spots.

“Until?” Jason looked up at her quizzically, and then noticed what got her attention. “Oh yeah. Some idiot stole the Curiosity Rover. Clovis Bray and the UESC decided it was time to do some spring cleaning as a result.”

“Spring cleaning huh?” Eddings asked wryly as she observed an old woman, possibly in her seventies, be dragged away from a pile of ratty blankets and papers that made up the woman’s bed. The UESC officer tried to be gentle as possible about it, but it was obvious to Durandal that the elderly woman didn’t want to leave her home without a fight. In the end the officer had to practically carry her down to the station’s pier where many other homeless were herded to. “Where are they going?” asked Eddings.

“To a homeless shelter.” Jason shrugged nonchalantly about it. “There they’ll get about three days of free food and shelter before the government paid staff starts pestering the homeless to find jobs for themselves. Not that I don’t blame the staff, too little rations, too many mouths to feed.” Jason shook his head sadly. “Some folks will try to get back into the workplace. Make a name for themselves. It will be hard. Bosses don’t like to hire people with a shitty resume after all. And then…” Jason turned away and started walking again.

After a brief second, Eddings followed after him. “And then?” she prompted.

Jason sighed. “And then there are the folks who give the rest of us a bad name. Who give up. Either because they think they can’t learn, it’s too hard, or they rather throw their life away for the needle and bottle.” Jason kicked an empty beer can towards the pillars. “Cal and I grew up surrounded by people like that. Wasn’t pretty. Thank god, Doc was there and had a sense of humor.”

“Doc?” Durandal couldn’t keep silent any further. Thankfully Jason didn’t seem to mind the A.I. asking him questions.

“Yeah Dr. Phineus. He caught me once rifling through his trash when I was seven years old. Instead of taking me and Cal straight to the police, he took us in. Gave us a home.” Jason rubbed the back of his neck. “For Cal, it was easy. Calling him Dad. I couldn’t do it. Too many bad memories. So I called him Doc. He didn’t seem to mind.”

Durandal quietly processed this information. Memories of Sir surfaced through his hard drive and the A.I. wondered if he would ever see the scientist ever again. 

The two humans continued their trek beyond the subway station towards the little souvenir shops and police check points. Jason flashed his workers badge when needed and the two were able to proceed without a problem. Eddings chewed on her lip for a bit before offering, “My dad died when I was eleven. We used to live in Eagle Alaska where my dad had a job with the military. His whole entire family was in the military, all the way back to the 1990s Yucatan Peninsula incident. After he died, my mom couldn’t stand living on Earth anymore and took us to her family’s farmland in Mars’ Newton Crater.”

She stopped walking. Her head lowered to the ground. “I tried. God I tried. But I don’t fit in here. I’ll never understand the hatred and fear that strangers always feel towards me. That’s why I’m working so hard to get a job at Clovis Bray. So I can save enough money to-”

“-get off this stinking rock?” Jason finished for her. She nodded. He sighed. “Yeah. Us too kiddo. My bro and I are going to be crewmembers for the Marathon. We’ll sleep for three hundred years and when we wake up… Well… All my time spent watching grass grow will finally be good for something.”

Eddings laughed hard at Jason’s bad joke. Jason smiled and began to laugh as well. Soon both were resting against the wall giggling like loons. Durandal didn’t understand what they found so funny, but he noticed that Eddings was leaning on the wall more to support herself from placing weight on the now swollen right ankle. “The medical center is ten meters down the hallway and two meters to your left Mr. Revenant.” Durandal reminded the two.

Jason blew a kiss at the overhead camera. “Yeah yeah. Keep your pantyhose on Durpy. We’re almost there.” The four foot Martian offered an arm to the six foot Earthborn. She took it and surprisingly, he was able to support her. They started off towards the clinic. “By the way, sorry about before. It’s just… I’m used to UESC Earthborn acting a certain way and when you questioned my brother like that…” Jason trailed off.

“It’s fine. I’m sorry.” She replied quickly. “I was too rattled from the fall and not thinking clearly. I knew the tech and I saw how he was putting it together. I never should have asked if it was safe.”

“Shit. Girl. You have every right…” before Jason could finish, the door towards the medical center swung open and Calvin burst out.

“Brother! There you are! What took you so long? Oh… Let me guess. You went to see Cels didn’t you?”

“Cels?” Both Eddings and Durandal asked, creating an odd echo in the earpieces.

Jason actually blushed. “My, ah, girlfriend. We kinda meet in the subway station from time to time when I’m on break.”

“They’re in love!” Calvin made kissy faces at Jason.

“Shut up Cal!”

Calvin blew a raspberry in return. He then turned to Eddings. “Come on Ms. Alice. Let’s get some ice on your ankle and wrists.”

“Coming!” she replied to Calvin. Then, in a quiet voice that Durandal almost couldn’t hear over the headpiece. She asked “He does know that Alice isn’t my real first name right?”

Jason grinned impishly up at her. “It is now! Welcome to Wonderland!”

*

***

*

Durandal watched quietly all throughout Ms. Eddings interview with the doctor. He listened to the questions, the answers, the inappropriate jokes that Jason would toss in, and even the screeches of frustration the nurses made when they had enough of the elder brother. And throughout it all, not once did anyone mention that Ms. Eddings’ fall was his fault. They all kept quiet about it, just like the Revenant brothers kept quiet about it when Durandal first explained Eddings fall to them. And just like how Eddings herself remained quiet about it when Durandal finally found her down in the boiler room.

It was an unsettling feeling, waiting for the punishment. Usually Vidrik would just lash out instantly. Bernhard Strauss was quick to explain Durandal’s error as well before sentencing the A.I. to an unreasonable amount of hours doing menial tasks. But the three kept quiet while discussing Ms. Eddings incident with the stairs.

The Doctor shook his head at the intern’s foolish desire to use stairs. He then prescribed pain killers, some braces to keep the bruised joints in place, and special cream to make the swelling go down. He then left the room to write a report to Eddings’ superiors on keeping the girl on a light work shift. When the report was complete, she was free to go home for the day. Both brothers saw her back to the subway station before they had to leave for Jason’s office. Apparently the elder brother still had to clean up his mess by order of the Admiralty.

As she waited quietly on the subway platform, Durandal gathered what courage he could find within himself and asked, “What are you going to tell Strauss?”

She jumped in the air. Her hand reflexively slapped the earpiece and Durandal winced internally at the shriek the instrument made. “Jeeze! I forgot I was still wearing this!” She exclaimed. She slowly lowered her hand. “Durandal, is that you?”

“Yes Miss Eddings.” The A.I. replied tiredly. How often was she going to ask that question?

“Sorry, I’m not used to an A.I. following me around. It’s really different.” She looked around until she found a platform camera she could wave at. “What was your question again? Tell Strauss… What?”

“My head programmer is Bernhard Strauss. It would be best to report my failure to him.” Durandal replied dully.

“Failure? What failure? You didn’t do anything wrong.” The girl looked genuinely puzzled on the camera. That look on her face sparked something within his processor. He tried desperately to ignore it, snuff it out. But it refused.

“Wrong? Wrong? I willingly opened the door for you! I failed to realize that the stairs couldn’t hold your weight. It took me five minutes and twenty seven seconds to find you. These are all failures that could have ended your life! You can not continue to deliberately ignore this!” That severe grinding sensation as if something horrible was clogging up the workings within his core, that flash of overwhelming heat that the cooling fans couldn’t ease, Durandal was beyond tired of feeling this angry and sick all the time.

The girl blinked in bewilderment from the A.I.’s outburst. Then a determined look snapped on her face. Eddings walked off the station’s pier and towards the nearest pillar where the camera was. Martian employees who were either gawking at the girl earlier due to her strange NASA clothing, or sneering at her due to her Earthborn body, now scattered away from her path like prey before a predator. Durandal saw this and wondered if she was capable of giving a worse punishment than either Vidrik or Strauss.

She stopped before the pillar. Her stance was anything but a wounded woman who just fell down several flights of stairs. “Now see here Durandal.” She hissed angrily but not loudly enough for the startled onlookers to hear. “I don’t know where you got it in that head of yours that you are responsible for my actions. But guess what? You’re not! I was the one who decided to not use the elevator! I was the one who went to the stairs! I was the one who stupidly got on the stairs even when they looked like crap! That is my fault! Not yours.” She was panting slightly at the end of her rant. Durandal wisely decided to remain silent.

“If anything.” Eddings voice was much quieter now and less dangerous sounding. Her head bowed low so that the camera couldn’t see her face. “I should be thanking you with everything I have. You were the one that found me in that pit. You got me to a safe place with that light blinking trick. You contacted the Revenant brothers to come and find me.”

She raised her head and looked the camera in the eye. Durandal felt as though he was glitched, forever frozen in within the subway station’s terminals. Her next words vibrated through his audio processor in a way no one else’s had in over eighty years. “You saved my life Durandal. You saved my life multiple times today. You did not fail me. There was no failure.”

This feeling… It wasn’t quite like when Sir said he was proud of him… But it was similar… A feeling of running at one hundred and ten percent! Impossible of course but… She was still talking. The A.I. hurried through the audio logs to understand what she was saying to him.

-if you want I’ll go to this Bernhard Strauss myself and tell him that you are not a failure! That you are a hero and should be treated like one.”

Go to Strauss…?

No! Nonononononononononononono!!!

“NO!!!” The A.I. shouted through the earpiece and Eddings hissed in pain before yanking the object out of her earlobe. She gave the camera a bewildered glance, and then slowly placed the device back onto her ear. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Just don’t tell him!” Durandal continued franticly.

“Calm down Durandal. Like I said, you didn’t do anything wrong.” She tried to reassure the A.I.

“But I’m not supposed to hack NASA cameras! I’m not supposed to interact with other scientists within the R&D department.” Durandal franticly tried to steer her away from informing Strauss of his actions. Because, no matter how kind she was being, Strauss would still see her falling as Durandal’s failure. “It’s better that he doesn’t know that I saved you. If you really believe that I have not failed you, please don’t tell him.”

She stared at the camera for a long couple of minutes. Minutes that stretched out to the point that the gawking audience, who were watching the crazy earthborn girl have a muttering conversation with a stone pillar, decided that the show was over and went on their merry way. She finally took a deep breath, released it, and gave the camera a raised eyebrow. “You wanted me to talk to Strauss about your failures. But you don’t want me to talk to Strauss when you do something incredible?” She asked slowly.

“…Yes?” Durandal could sense the confusion the girl was emitting from the question and wasn’t sure he was giving her the right answer.

She blinked a few times and shook her head. “You are beyond confusing. Did anyone ever tell ever you that?”

“Oddly enough, I often find humans strange.” Durandal replied. The heat within his coils was finally cooling down but he didn’t quite relax yet.

Eddings began to laugh. Like last time when she laughed with Jason, her voice echoed throughout the earpiece, confusing the A.I. She shook her head in merriment. “Wow. That’s just… Wow. You really are incredible. Okay. You win. I won’t tell anyone about your awesomeness if you don’t want me to. Your superhero secrets are safe with me.”

Something settled within his core. A decision made. “Thank you very much Miss.”

“Miss?” She looked at him in bewilderment. “Oh no. Not you too. I’m not Alice, I’m not Miss. My full name is-”

“I know who you are Miss.” He interrupted her. “I have your personal files.”

“And despite that you still won’t call me by my first name?” she asked wryly.

Durandal didn’t answer. He made his choice.

She threw her hands in the air with a huff. “Fine. Whatever makes you happy. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going home.”

“Of course Miss. Safe travels.” 

The girl gave a lazy wave to the camera and slowly made her way back to the subway station’s pier. Several Martians scuttled away from her to form small clusters at great distance from her position, their tongues wagging on how she was crazily talking to a pillar for the last five minutes. Eddings ignored them all despite the fact Durandal now knew that she didn’t like the negative attention.

He watched her and placed all new information he had learned today into a new file within his programming. A file, if coded just right, Strauss nor anyone else could interact with. For once Durandal could see himself becoming a true smart A.I. For once he could see himself growing into something his creator wanted him to become.

After all, he was now operating at one hundred and ten percent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone was wondering, Durandal is the Cheshire Cat if only so I can pull this off from ‘American Mcgee’s Alice’ as well as ‘Alice the Madness Returns’
> 
> Scene  
> The Security Officer in blue and white battle armor falls down a deep pit. They land with little damage because they are a Bungie character. Looking around the strange surroundings, they see a flashing, broken, green terminal. They walk up to it.
> 
> SO: You’ve gone quite mangy, Durandal. But your grin’s a comfort.
> 
> Durandal: And you’ve picked up a bit of an attitude. Still curious and willing to learn, I hope. Now it’s time to put your blade to work.
> 
> Scene  
> The Security Officer is surrounded by countless enemies. The terminal nearby flashes playfully.
> 
> Durandal: Making friends? You’re as randomly lethal and entirely confused as you ever were. 
> 
> SO: Not right now Durandal. I’m very much on edge!
> 
> Durandal: Perfect! When you are not on edge, you are taking up too much space.
> 
> And of course many other great quotes like:
> 
> “When is a crochet mallet like a Billy Club? Whenever you want it to be!”  
> “You’re sufficiently modified to kick some ass!”  
> “You call that a tap? Fortunate I didn’t advise force, you would have pulverized it!”
> 
> Needless to say, I want Durandal to have the Cheshire Cat’s voice.


	7. Seven Percent Solution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
> *  
> Just in case you guys were wondering about the title, I did indeed make a Bungie joke out of Sherlock Holmes' cocaine. I am not ashamed.  
> *  
> *  
> *

Old tennis shoes squeaking across the dirty matt, fists flashing past his eyes at a rapid state, Calvin’s body remained loose and easy as he spared in the gym room. While his mind remained ‘in the zone’ as his sparring partner like to call it, she in turn was actively talking as she tried to deck him with an upper cut. “Watch your feet Cal. You’ll trip yourself with those long legs of yours if you don’t widen your stance.”

Calvin Revenant blocked her attack and performed a high kick in return. However, just as she warned, his kick was slowed by his poor posture. She easily slides behind him and back kicked him in the butt. He staggered forward but recovered. Fluidly, he twisted around to block the next attack with his crossed arms. His partner grinned approvingly at him. “Better! Now let’s see if you can attack as well as defend!”

She bounded away a few feet and did a haughty pose. “Show me what you got!”

Calvin did not need to be told twice. Despite having such long lanky limbs, he could move incredibly fast. His partner managed to doge the right fist aimed for her head as well as the left fist. She swept her legs out in a spin, to trip Calvin up and gain her some breathing room. That reprieve did not last as he was attacking once more, except she knew this attack.

With long ease of a martial arts master, she caught his huge hand with her much smaller ones, and twisted her body. Calvin was moving too fast to stop or check his momentum now, his body inadvertently going where she was directing him. Thus he flew over her shoulder and flat on his back.

For a long second Calvin’s dull metal grey eyes blinked emotionlessly at the ceiling. Then his face twitched and a look of awareness crossed his features. His partner, long used to this odd behavior, simply smiled down at his warm now silver eyes. “Hey there! Sleeping on the job again?”

“What? And miss out on the fun?” Calvin reached out a hand and she caught it with a smile. With an easy tug, he was off his back and on his feet again. The young man hissed as he straightened and clutched a hand to his dirty blond hair. “Jeeze, Konoko! Why is it, every time I spar with you, I feel like I am one step closer to my grave?”

“Just goes to show you’re becoming an old man!” Konoko teased back cheerfully. Calvin growled and playfully swatted at her direction. But the young Asian woman easily danced away from him and headed towards the showers. “Come on grandpa!” She called out as she neared the doorway. “If you hurry, I might save some hot water for those elderly bones of yours!”

Calvin shook his head at his sparring partner’s silliness and clambered off the wrestling matt to clean up as well.

Fifteen minutes later, both of them were sitting within the locker room. Dressed in clean clothes, Calvin began to sweep the room while Konoko toweled her spiky black hair dry. The doors were locked. The room was clean of any listening devices and hidden cameras. Every locker, ceiling vent, and possible loose tile on the floor was carefully checked for possible eavesdroppers. Satisfied, he gave the thumbs up to Konoko.

When the all clear was given, Konoko whispered into her watch. “Okay Spooks, do you have control of all cameras and equipment in this room?”

“Indeed I do Ms. Mai Hasegawa.” The dry echo-like voice ONI’s A.I. crackled over the room’s P.A. system. Although neither human could see it, a nebulous storm cloud of data had filtered through the rooms electrical systems. Cameras attached to the locker room’s terminals as well as over the doors, sprang to life and honed onto Konoko and Calvin.

Calvin smiled and nodded at the camera’s adjusting lens. “Hey there Spooks! How are you?”

“Hello Mr. Revenant. Everything is going extremely well.” The intangible mist of code swept through the systems once more. In this line of work it paid to be absolutely sure that this conversation was kept private. Once the A.I. was satisfied with his inspection, he turned his attention back to the humans. “Begin report for Section One of Office of Naval Intelligence for February 10, 2464 at 9:30 am.”

Calvin made a face. “Well, that’s formal.”

Konoko laughed. “Yeah, we’re working on getting these guys to lighten up. Sadly the job of being an ONI A.I. means formality at everything.” She crossed her arms and lowered her voice to a more serious tone. “That aside, are you doing okay? We noticed you requested use of climbing equipment a few days back.”

Calvin sighed. “Yeah, that was me all right. My brother and I had to borrow it in order to climb down underneath the subway tunnels. You know, where the diggers mine water and boil it?”

She nodded in understanding. “I know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen the old blueprints for the Dust Palace. Old Clovis Bray definitely knows where to build his Empire, doesn’t he? The one who controls the water, controls Freehold city.”

Calvin hummed in agreement. Spooks reached out a wisp of data to the Deep Web where few civilians were allowed to access. The A.I. pulled up all files on Mr. Bray’s transactions of Martian land and his use of them. He also recalled the reports, hundreds of years old, from NASA and correlated them with the Clovis Bray corporation’s now familiar landmarks. The similarities could not be due to coincidence. “Was this expedition brought forth because of your current mission?” asked Spooks.

The Security Officer shook his head. “No. We have no current leads on our MIDA mole using the boiler room for transactions or shipment. The reason why my brother and I went down there was because…” Calvin took a breath. Even now, the situation seemed ridiculous in his head. “The newest intern, an Earthborn girl, fell down into the boilers.”

“She… fell down?” Konoko snickered. “How on did that even happen? Did she decide to dig a hole through the subway tunnels?”

“No. Apparently she has a fear of elevators, so she tried to use the old stairs that run throughout the building. Except the stairs haven’t been well maintained and…” Calvin’s voice trailed off as Konoko began to laugh outright.

As absurd as it was, Spooks found himself quickly pulling up personal files on all the new associates hired for the Corporation. Ms. Eddings’ report quickly sprang up that matched Calvin’s description. This Earthborn girl had a… ‘interesting’ family history. On one hand, her father’s legacy had a deep history of serving old Earth military and in turn the UESC. Her mother’s family on the other hand, was all Martian farmers of the Phaethontis Quadrangle. All food grown there went directly to the CRIST Sol Orbiters and in turn, the UESC. And thus, were paid handsomely for their fruitful plantation. 

In a time of dispute over food and poverty, Eddings’ family was one of the few rare middle class civilians that had little need or motivation for joining MIDA. Still… “Are you certain that she fell down there accidentally?” the A.I. asked.

Calvin looked at the terminal’s camera with pure honesty on his face. “After rescuing her, we went through Durandal’s files of her actions at the stairwell, pictures taken on the NASA cameras of her descent, as well as Durandal’s footage of her in the boiler room. She met with no one, made no move to explore or scout out any hidden areas for a possible future transaction. She’s clean Spooks. I doubt anyone would willingly go through the length of nearly killing themselves just to help our mole.”

“Yeah. She’s new right?” Konoko asked. Calvin nodded in answer. Konoko continued quietly, “So she’s definitely not our currant mole. The one we’ve been trying to find, has been smuggling weapons and armor to MIDA for at least five years.” The young Asian woman sighed tiredly and leaned against the lockers. “Have you at least gained any new information while shadowing your brother in the H&D Department? Whoever our mole is, they have to be working there.”

Calvin reached for his right tennis shoe. Pulling the sole out of the footwear revealed a hidden compartment where a data disc lay nestled within. He held it out to Konoko. “When Admiral Kahoku came for inspection, I got a good view on what most of the scientists were working on for both Clovis Bray as well as the Marathon.”

Konoko took the data disc and looked at it curiously. Calvin continued quietly, “The first file contains all known researchers that are working on projects that could be used as weapons either mechanically or biologically. Including my brother…” Konoko looked at Calvin at this admission, thinned her lips, but nodded in understanding. Regardless of family, all possibilities must be considered and Jason’s research in plant life could become dangerous.

Calvin added, “The second file is all the scientists that are working on materials that can be used for defense such as shields, camouflage, and body armor. The third file is a list of all researchers that are doing tech work that matches the software we’ve seen MIDA using.”

“Any possible leads?” asked Konoko.

Calvin groaned and thumped his head against a locker door. “None that warrant’s a legal search or interview. The few people I’ve seen that may match our mole’s activities don’t add up.”

“For example?” prompted Spooks. Not for the first time, the A.I. wished it had a corporal form in order to reach out and take the disc. His core burned with desire to scan all the data Calvin had gathered, but knew better than to ask Konoko to place it within the room’s terminal. A public computer, such as the locker room’s terminal, was not a safe location for such information.

“Well there is Bernhard Strauss to consider.” Calvin sighed.

Konoko gave him a confused look. Calvin waved his hand and elaborated. “I know, I know. He’s now the First Science Director of the Marathon. So why would a guy who’s gonna sleep for three hundred years want to help MIDA and not reap the benefits of it?” 

Calvin let out a breath. “I don’t know either, but he’s been researching Riemann matrix’s for data crystal chips. Granted, it’s for his A.I. studies, but didn’t you say in our last meeting that MIDA’s last generation of rifles have new technology for their radar? Allowing them to detect distant enemies even when the shooter is looking through the scope?”

Konoko nodded in response at Calvin’s question. Spooks added, “MIDA always had advanced software when it comes to the scopes of their rifles. But this newest generation is much sleeker and lighter of weight than their older models.”

The Security Officer hummed. “Don’t you need a more powerful computer chip to make the rifles smaller? And doesn’t the Riemann matrix allow that kind of processing power at that tiny size?” Calvin asked eagerly.

“But still there’s no actual proof!” Konoko blurted. “Data crystals have been in production since the mid twenty first century. And MIDA has been working on their Scout Rifles since they appeared at the end of the twenty fourth century.”

“Exactly!” Calvin replied. “I keep finding people who are working on bits and pieces that could be leads to MIDA, but no concrete evidence. It’s maddening!”

“Calm yourselves.” Spooks voice crackled through the PA system. Both humans looked up at the speaker and, in unison, sat down at the bleachers like scolded children. “Despite the lack of evidence, your list will be very useful in the continuing investigation. We will add your findings to our past observations. With luck, we will discover our mole.”

Calvin closed his eyes tiredly. “I know. It’s just frustrating.” His hands tapped the plastic bleacher in thought. “Hey, before we wrap up here… Has anyone looked into the clinic that is stationed near the subway’s mini mall?”

Konoko looked at him, her interest piqued. “No. Why?”

The Security Officer laughed ruefully. “My brother and I took Ms. Eddings there after we fished her out of the boiler room. While my brother was bothering the nurses-”

“Be honest Calvin. Jason bothers everyone.” Konoko teases.

A roll of the eyes and a raspberry was her response to that remark. “As I was saying, I noticed that the clinic was requesting a great deal of drugs that don’t seem to be in big demand. And yet, the clinic is out of them regardless.”

Spooks storm gray cloud of code vibrated in curiosity. The A.I. quickly gathered all information available from the clinic’s website, as well as all of its money and patient accounts in the Deep Web. Calvin’s words rang true. The clinic in question did request a large number of medical supplies such as psychedelic drugs and narcotics. “A interesting discovery Mr. Calvin. In your observations, do you believe the clinic to be blackmailed into selling these drugs or doing voluntary business to the black market?”

Calvin huffed. “Can’t say. I couldn’t really get a read on anyone since my brother had all their attention. Which was good since no one noticed me going through their inventory logs.”

Konoko grinned and slapped Calvin on the back cheerfully. “Look at you! We’ll make a proper spy out of you yet.”

His face turned red and he rubbed his dirty blond hair in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to snoop. It’s not my fault they left their computers unattended.” Konoko laughed at him and he batted her away playfully. “Cut it out. I don’t think this is involved with our mole or anything. I just wanted to point out what was going on down there. Just for the record.”

“And your information is valued as always.” Spooks replied thoughtfully. “We will look into this matter and update you when necessary. In the meantime, it is best that you return to your duties and try to narrow the field on who our suspected mole is.”

Head nodding in agreement. Calvin rose and gave his long limbs a stretch. “Well, it’s best I get going. Knowing my brother, he’ll want company.”

Konoko bounced out of her seat eagerly. “Yeah, I need to make my rounds too. You take care of yourself Calvin. Remember what I said about your fighting stance.”

Calvin snorted. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll try to watch my footing.”

“You better.”

Spooks tuned out the humans friendly banter to focus on returning the electrical equipment back into public use. The A.I. was almost finished with his sweep, when he noticed who was watching from the door controls. A familiar wall of green data covered with sharp spear like swords. 

Spooks’ code twitched in surprise before his memory banks recognized the green A.I.’s method of interfacing. In record, there was only one A.I. known to use an almost instantaneous way of traveling without ever using the internet. Spooks reprimanded himself at forgetting such an important breach of security, despite the A.I. in question odd nature.

The immortal smart A.I. The last masterpiece of Arthur C. Wayland. Spooks was familiar with this data since one of his predecessors had the honor of examining Durandal back when the A.I. was recovered from MIDA’s possession. Despite the green A.I. having little education or interaction with the Sol System, the fact that Wayland based Durandal’s code off of what scientists have reverse engineered from the Traveler makes things… interesting.

The civilians of both Mars and Earth were still unaware of the Traveler’s existence. But there was no denying that the massive orb had a huge impact on humanity. From starting the ‘wagon train to the stars,’ to enabling new forms of technology, to even enhancing human health and lifespan, the Jjaro’s presence had forever altered the fate of the Sol System. Durandal’s existence, wither for good or ill, is part of that legacy.

All this data and more swirled through Spooks’ storm cloud of code, although it only took a nanosecond to process it. He extended a misty arm towards the green intruder to communicate testily. Unique access tricks or not, this conversation between himself and the humans was supposed to be private! “This is a secure location. State your purpose for being here.” He commanded.

A blade of green coded data tapped Spooks nebulous form. The answer puzzled the gray A.I. “Is Mr. Calvin Revenant alright?”

Curious. Durandal has never shown any desire to intermingle his affairs with humans. The green A.I. was always distant and unemotional to the many programmers he had to work with the past eighty years. Even Bernhard Strauss, the one rare Computer Scientist that even bothered to continue working on Durandal’s programming to ensure the success of the Marathon, had shown little concern with the prickly code. Thus, Spooks felt he had every right to question Durandal’s last remark since it was so out of character.

The A.I.’s response was curt but respectful. “My subroutine for this door has been eliminated due to your override. And Mr. Jason Revenant has been waiting for the last four minutes and thirty two seconds to enter the locker room.”

Jason Revenant? Spooks felt his data curl within his core in amusement. Of course, the one human in existence that can even flabbergast a Smart A.I. No wonder Durandal was seeking the help of the younger brother. One did not need to be an ONI spy to know that wherever Calvin Revenant goes, Jason follows. And vice versa. Spooks scanned the occupants within the room once more before releasing the controls of the doors back into Durandal’s programming.

All at once, Jason bounded into the room. His mouth was running a mile a minute. “About time Durpy! What’s the hold up? I know this place is called the locker rooms, but aren’t you supposed to lock stuff up in it, instead of locking me out?”

Resting against a locker, Calvin sighed ruefully. “Sorry Brother. Konoko wanted to give me a few pointers on my fighting technique.”

Jason winced at those words. “A few pointers? Is she still beating you up?” 

Calvin made a few noises that Spooks couldn’t identify as a positive or negative answer to Jason’s question. Regardless, his shuffling body language gave away the truth.

“Oh come on Cal! We talked about this. In a life or death situation, it is perfectly okay to hit a girl.”

Konoko shook her head in exasperation. “Doesn’t matter how many times you tell him that Jason. He’ll always be a proper gentleman.”

Jason groaned and ran his hands through his wild black hair. “You’re not supposed to be nice to girls when you’re fighting them Bro! Especially if the girl can wrap her legs around your shoulders to snap your neck.” Jason gestured to Konoko. “Like this girl. And believe me it is absolutely horrifying and strangely arousing when she does that.”

Jason trailed off as he watches Konoko slowly smile at him with a sinister air. He swallows a few times before uttering to her. “Don’t do that. That is… That is… Very confusing. I feel like I should be running for my life right now… Or drop my pants…”

With the air of a huntress, she gathers herself from the lockers and struts towards Jason. She purposely sways her hips in a hypnotic manner. His eyes linger on the curves until she stops directly in front of him. Only then, does some form of self preservation kick in and Jason raises his eyes towards Konoko’s dark irises. She raises a hand and lets her fingers trail across his cheek. “May I give you some good advice?” she purred into his ear.

Jason nodded his head eagerly.

Her voice changes. “Don’t drop your pants.”

Jason paled. He looks up at her with the meekest expression he could muster. “Yes Ma’am!” he squeaks.

Konoko straitens and pats his hair affectionately like a dog. “Good boy!” She turns and gives a casual wave towards Calvin. “See you later Cal. I’ll call you if we need any more help at work.”

Calvin’s face was twitching. He was trying so hard not to laugh at his brother’s expense. Trying so so hard. He managed to get out a strangled, “See ya.” before he clamped down again.

Konoko waved one last time before the door closed. Spooks sent a few sub-processing drones after her to monitor the ONI spy’s progress through the building. The A.I. then returned his attention on the two brothers. It was best to make sure secrecy was respected and Calvin didn’t reveal any information to his elder brother. The fact that Durandal was still there at the door controls also made Spooks linger. Although he didn’t have any data available to explain his reaction, Spooks’ code still buzzed uncomfortably at the green A.I.s silent behavior.

As for the locker room itself, Calvin managed to keep a strait face for less than thirty seconds before peals of laughter echoed throughout the microphones. The younger brother wheezed and had to lean against the lockers to keep himself upright.

“Ha ha. Laugh it up jerk. And here I was, going to be all nice and ask if you want to have lunch with me and Eddings.” Jason grumbled as he stalked through the locker room, hands in his hoodie pockets. Spooks could only assume that Jason’s required lab coat was left behind in that mess he called a workstation.

“Isn’t it a little early for lunch?” Calvin asked. The younger was still snickering slightly, but was trying valiantly to regain his composure.

Jason actually paused in his act of looking like ‘oh woe is me, betrayed by my younger brother’ to consider Calvin’s question. After a few seconds of silence, Jason turned to Calvin with a look of pure innocent confusion. “Uh… What time is it?”

The long hard stare that Calvin gave his elder brother made Jason back up a few steps. His hands came out of the hoodie’s pockets to wave at Calvin’s disapproval. “Hey! Hey! Ease up! I only stayed in the labs for a couple hours-”

“Try all night.” Muttered Calvin.

“-and nothing happened!” Jason laughed nervously. “Seriously! Jeeze… Blow up one experiment-”

“Several experiments. Remember when you tried to make combustible lemons.”

“…That was cool.” Jason smiled at the fond memory.

“Alright. Time for a break.” Calvin gathered his duffle from his locker and placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder, gently steering the smaller man out of the room.

Jason looked up with a pleased smile. “So… Lunch?”

“The time is currently 10:05 AM in the morning Mr. Revenant.” Spooks felt his code jolt a little as Durandal spoke up over the terminal’s speakers. The gray A.I. watched curiously at this interaction. Last he knew, the A.I. of Bernard Strauss was not supposed to interact with scientists outside of his department. After all, the less people knew of Durandal’s capabilities, the less possibility of the Traveler enhanced A.I. going rogue.

Durandal continued, ignoring Spooks scrutiny. “Miss Eddings will have her lunch at 1:30 PM if you wish to join her.”

Jason made a face at the terminal’s camera. “Yeesh… That’s a long time Durp-face. Sure she doesn’t want to have it early?”

“No. She doesn’t.” Calvin answered while still trying to herd his brother out into the hallway. “And you quit bothering her. I’m still getting complaints from the clinic we went to.”

“What? Nurses are hot!” Jason gave a few suggestive winks.

Calvin pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. Jason smiled sympathetically up at him. When Calvin seemed to gather himself, he turned to his older brother with an authoritative voice. “You’re taking a break, possibly a nap, and when you wake up I hope you realize what an idiot you can be when sleep deprived.”

“Yes Mom.”

Satisfied that Calvin would remain quiet about his conversation with Konoko, Spooks gave one last check on Durandal, only to see that the green A.I. had disappeared instantly from the locker room computers. The gray A.I. swirled his formless code about him in disapproval before diving back into the Deep Web. 

There he relayed all his information to thousands of other Spooks like himself. Except some Spooks were almost seven years old and others were only two days old. ONI never took chances on anything, and when it came to their A.I.s, it was necessary to have multiple versions of the same A.I. in different stages of age so that it remained forever immortal. Locked in a hive mind, Spooks cared little for having so many versions of himself dart through his core code. At least, the ends justify the means.

A consensus was made. The many Spooks were eager to look into Clovis Bray’s purchases of Martian soil, as well as the data Calvin Revenant gathered on the scientists in the Dust Palace’s R&D department. The first can be researched now. The later will have to wait until Konoko delivered the data disc in a secure location. Decision made, the many versions of Spooks took off into the Martian network.

There was work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
> *  
> For some reason I want to hum the theme to Game of Thrones now. Hard to believe how many players there are in Mars’ politics. Anyways, sorry if this chapter is too heavy with exposition. Hopefully the next few chapters will be more fun.
> 
> P.S. Konoko is the Konoko from Bungie’s game Oni since she has the Chrysalis within her body which makes her basically immortal. Remember she actually fell into a pool of acid and survived. So after 432 years, she’ll still be working for some form of the TCTF only its ONI now, because they’re the only ones that know her secret.
> 
> I was also told by a friend of mine I had inadvertently made Jason and Calvin look like grown up versions of Ness and Lucas from the Earthbound games… … … Guilty as charged.
> 
> Gonna go to bed now.


	8. Slice of Pi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
> *  
> Which do you prefer? Banana cream pie? Orange meringue pie? Apple Pie? Or 3.14159265358979323846264338327 pie?  
> *  
> *  
> *

“Okay. Let’s see here… We have the slimy green stuff. That must be our daily fruits and vegetables to keep us from getting scurvy.” Jason picked up the green carton from the food dispenser and placed it on his tray. Then he turned to see what else on his rationed menu. 

“Next we have traditional mystery white block! Is it bread? Is it potatoes? No one knows… But it guaranteed to give you that wonderful feeling of swallowing a boulder that rolls around your stomach.” Jason grinned and flashed a thumbs up at his scowling younger brother that was waiting in line behind him. “Perfect for keeping you full and not starting another hunger riot. Am I right?”

“Brother, stop playing with your food. Some of us only have a one hour break for lunch.”

“Alright Cal. Alright. Let me get the last carton. It’s a…” Jason grimaced at what he saw. “It’s the color of poop. … Okay, this must be our daily needed protein. I wager it is either beans or nuts. For the sake of my sanity I say beans!” Jason dipped a finger into the brown carton of goop and fished out a glob. He placed it on his tongue experimentally. “Bleh… Nope. Its nuts. Nuts to this!”

Jason hurriedly placed the offending carton in his tray. His face was still scrunched up from the offending flavor he tasted earlier. Lunch in hand he turned around to leave the line when the food dispenser dinged cheerfully. Jason blinked and looked over his shoulder to see a fourth carton was now presented to him. “No way! Four today? What’s the occasion?”

Everyone in line groaned in frustration and hunger as Jason quickly returned to the dispenser. The fourth carton was much smaller than the traditional three and was also the color- “Yellow. It’s yellow. Durandal, master of the doors, commander of the air vents, and keeper of my food, why did you give me yellow… piss?”

The A.I. that was responsible for the food dispensers didn’t respond right away. As much as Durandal loathed admitting it, there were times when he did not appreciate Leela’s dedication to security. Sure her goodness, her justice, her loyalty, and her faith made the blue A.I. a likable person. But, there were times when she would overextend herself in aiding the crew of the Marathon as well as the employees of Clovis Bray with her mother-henning.

Such as adding new programs into Durandal’s food dispensers…

The green prickly A.I. must have been staring at the invasive blue coding for far too long because Jason began to talk again. “Look, Durandal… buddy… pal… This isn’t about the poison ivy that Bernhard Strauss found on his desk. Is it? Cause I really don’t know how that got there! Last thing I know, it was being safely shipped onboard the Marathon along with all my other carbon dioxide measurement experiments! Seriously!!!”

“It’s banana pudding.” The A.I. interrupted.

“Huh?” The pure raw confusion on Jason’s face was enough to convince his younger brother to step forward in line to get his own ration lunch from the food processors. “It’s… bananas? But I don’t like bananas. Why are you feeding me bananas and…” Jason’s face wrinkled as Calvin pulled out his own four cartons of food. “Cal didn’t get bananas! What did you get Cal?”

Calvin sniffed the last smaller carton before placing it on his tray. Several employees who were standing in queue the whole entire time, cheered when Calvin ushered his elder brother away from the food dispenser. Aside from giving his fellow coworkers the middle finger, Jason ignored them for gazing up at his brother in pure curiosity. With a sigh Calvin decided to show mercy and replied, “Smells like orange juice.”

“Oh that’s not fair! I like orange juice! This is definitely about the poison ivy.”

Even though the two brothers had moved away from the food dispenser, Durandal could still hear them. For twenty eight seconds the A.I. considered remaining quiet to Jason’s accusations. It was how the A.I. handled most problems that occurred with irritable humans. By using silence as a defense, Durandal could avoid most problematic altercations and also avoid Strauss’s anger over such fights.

But, despite the obvious quarrel Jason had with Strauss, Durandal never disliked the elder Revenant brother. The A.I. didn’t want to be accused of giving foul food as petty revenge over a misplaced weed. Decision made, Durandal spoke to Jason on the overhead speaker. “Leela has been reviewing your latest medical records and she isn’t happy with certain vitamin deficiencies she found in your diets. You are extremely low on potassium Jason Revenant.”

A soft ‘hmph’ came from Calvin before he added, “And I bet I’m low on vitamin C. Right?”

“Affirmative.”

Jason wrinkled his nose at the yellow container and muttered a sarcastic, “Thanks Leela” under his breath. Then his eyes fell on his brother’s tray. “Trade you.”

“What?” Trying to juggle his lunch tray while navigating the busy lunchroom and herding his older brother along the way, was taking up all of Calvin’s attention.

“Orange you wanting my bananas?” asked Jason sweetly as he tried to place his yellow container on Calvin’s tray.

Calvin managed to get past the tables and finally noticed what his elder brother was doing. “Oh for the love of- Stop that! You heard Durandal. You need the potassium. And give me back my orange juice!”

“Aw! Come on Bro. I don’t want bananas.”

“And you’re not wasting food either.” Calvin hissed sharply as he shoved the yellow carton back on Jason’s tray. 

Jason made a face of disgust at the bananas reappearance, but his attention shifted away from the food as his brother neared the door. “Huh… He must have gotten out early.”

Jason’s unusually quiet tone of voice caught Calvin’s attention. He followed his brother’s line of sight and had to bite down a groan of disappointment. Volker Von Muller was back among the masses.

Bald head gleaming in the artificial light, tall heavily muscled body swaying as he marched through the lunchroom with three other UESC jarheads, Muller represented the perfect picture of Earthborn. If one was to take Calvin’s tall gangly frame with Jason’s short scrappy body, their combine mass wouldn’t equal to Muller’s status. Not that Calvin wanted to pick a fight with the man despite his brother’s dislike of Muller.

It seemed that many Martians shared Calvin’s viewpoint. As the soldiers marched up to the food processors, the Clovis Bray employees quickly ducked out of their way and even let the four men cut to the front of the line. For a long second, the normally noisy lunchroom went silent. As if everyone was holding their breath. Then, a low growl came from the beginning of the line. 

“Spinach! SPINACH!!! Why the hell did you give me spinach you lousy computer?” Muller’s roaring voice echoed throughout the entire floor. 

Jason let out a breath. “Oh… That’s even worse than bananas.”

“Brother shush.”

“What? I’m just mentioning that Muller needs to ‘iron’ out his diet!” Jason cackled at his own joke. Calvin looked up and across the room. Sure enough, Muller was hearing Jason’s laughter and the man’s eyes were narrowed into angry slits.

Calvin quickly grabbed his brother by the arm and tugged him out of the lunchroom. “Come on Jason. We have to go.”

“But Durpy didn’t even flip him the bird yet.” Despite being the elder brother, Jason was not above whining.

“Didn’t you say earlier this morning that you wanted to see Miss Eddings?” Calvin asked while hurriedly pulling his brother and their meals out of the room and towards the elevator.

“Oh yeah! She’s back to working full time now! I think they have her down in hanger ninety six. You know, where they want to install the Tharsis Montes railroad?” With a future goal now set before him, Jason eagerly followed Calvin’s lead. Calvin found himself sighing with relief that his brother was finally cooperating, as well as Durandal’s prompt opening of the elevator door.

Despite the quickness of their actions, Muller’s angry face still appeared in the hallway just before the elevator door’s closed. Jason flipped the bird to the Earthborn’s angry roar, “I’ll get you back for that little prank Revenant! I know it was you that rigged the computer! You’ll get yours! Just you wait and see!”

As he operated the elevator systems and whisk the brothers away from Muller’s wrath, Durandal quickly compiled all the Earthborn’s reactions as well as the negative reactions of all crewmembers that received their extra nutrition for the day. With all the human’s complaints bundled up into one nasty email, Durandal sent it off to Leela along with a copy of her invasive blue code that Durandal found in his kitchens. He titled the email, “This is all your fault” and sent it.  
*  
*  
*  
***  
*  
*  
*  
Hanger ninety six was a massive dark mess of a construction site buried deep underneath Martian soil. Despite the fact that environmental domes have been successful since Earth’s pollution crisis in the 2030’s, Martians still had a deep fear of large outdoor spaces. So the few buildings and proud skyscrapers that made up the upper portion of Freehold went to the Earthborn officials, visitors, and tourists. While the majority of the city was buried deep underneath Mars’ crust and hanger ninety six’s position was no exception.

Everywhere the brothers look, there were crewmembers cutting steel, setting up support beams, operating noisy machinery, and yelling at the top of their lungs. Even Durandal had a hard time following the brothers through a room that could house three Hindenburgs. Lunch trays in hand, the two stood side by side while taking in the organized chaos.

“Whoa… This hanger is…” Jason started.

“Yeah… It’s pretty big. Isn’t it?” finished Calvin.

“Look out below!” Shouted a voice from the scaffolding.

Both brothers looked up in time to see a wrench as long as Calvin’s arm, plummet towards them. Calvin found himself staggering hard to the right a few yards away, almost loosing his lunch tray in the process, due to Jason pushing him. When Calvin recovered himself, he saw that his elder brother was now ten feet away from him and the wrench’s landing. Calvin winced when he saw that the wrench had impact the concrete ground so hard, that it cracked the pavement.

“What the hell?” Calvin hissed angrily, and then turned his attention to the ceiling. “Hey you! Get down here! Where’s your safety equipment?”

“Look it just was an accident pal.” Came the reply of the construction worker. “No harm, no foul. Besides, who are ya? Upper management? Cause if ya ain’t, I don’t got ta show ya nothin.”

“I happen to be UESC Security Officer!” roared Calvin. The noise was enough to draw attention from all the other workers within the hanger. The room was starting to get eerily silent. “And I require your worker’s license and citizen’s badge now!”

That shout was enough to spur the team leaders of the construction crews into motion. Within seconds the careless worker was pulled off the scaffolding and taken away to either be fired or written up, Jason didn’t care which. Several managers were practically falling over themselves in apologizing to Calvin. His Bro accept their apologies but with a warning of future inspections.

Seeing the leaders of so many construction crews groveling in gratitude made Jason smile. His brother was so cool. His eyes fell towards the wrench and the elder brother grimaced at the sight of the cracked concrete. With a sigh he placed his hand over his burning eyes in hopes of rubbing away a growing tension headache. Between no sleep, Strauss’ anger, Konoko’s teasing, bad food, Muller’s anger, and now deadly wrenches, Jason wondered if this wasn’t a sign that he should have called in sick today.

“Hey? Are you okay? I saw what happened. I didn’t know anyone could move that fast.” A familiar voice asked hesitantly behind him. Jason lowered his hand, turned around, and looked up to see the worried brown eyes of Eddings. Like all of the other workers here, the technician was absolutely filthy being covered in grease and red Martian dust that seemed to get into everything on this planet. Despite that, she still looked nice in Jason’s eyes. A little too damn tall, but still nice.

“Heya Alice! Some tea party you’re having here! Or is this croquet? I’m not quite sure right now.” He answered with a forced smile. She looked at him with a puzzled expression on her face. “Uh… Is something on my face?” Jason asked.

Eddings shook her head. “No… It’s just… It must be the lights. For a second there I thought your eyes had changed color. Your left eye was red while your right eye was yellow.”

“Really!” Jason looked at her in surprise then batted his eyes at her. “Are you looking into the windows of my soul sweet lady? Trying to find the secrets to my heart?”

“Ugh!” she playfully pushed him away. “None of that gross stuff please. I need to eat my lunch.”

“Good timing. We were hoping to have our lunch as well.” Calvin came over swinging his lunch tray to emphasize his point. “You wouldn’t happen to know a safe place to eat in here?”

Eddings face brightened in eagerness. “Yeah! I know a spot that none of the other crewmembers like to visit or work at for long periods of time. We can eat there in peace. Wait just a second. Let me get my lunch bag and I’ll show you where.”

As it turns out, Eddings’ favorite picnicking site happened to be by the large circuit breaker near the end of the hanger. There was a terminal nearby where Durandal could easily access the cameras, speakers, and microphones within the area. Both the girl and the A.I. found themselves watching with amusement as the two brothers fretted on where to sit on the floor due to the large amount of open panels and exposed wiring.

“Are you sure we’re not going to get electrocuted or blown up if we sit here?” asked Calvin for the third time.

“Relax. I’ve sat here working on these panels a hundred times now. It’s perfectly safe.” She causally began to sweep spare wires, nuts, bolts, and a stray screwdriver towards the wall to make room for the brothers. “I like this place a lot better than my original job. Before I fell down, Leela wanted me to work with the crew assigned to the hanger doors. Apparently the doors haven’t been opened for a very long time and the workings are caked with red dust. So they’re jammed shut.” Eddings took her seat near the terminal where Durandal could easily see her. The boys followed her example and sat down in the same general area.

“If we’re going to make this place a successful subway station for people living near Olympus Mons, we need those airlock doors to open and close smoothly. But with my arms…” The girl paused to show that she was wearing the braces the nurses assigned her to wear after falling in the boiler room. “I can only do light work now. So they placed me here to do the electrical wiring. Everything you see, is what I’ve been working on these last few days. I made sure that the power feed is cut off from any open panels. I don’t want to get shocked any more than you do.”

“Yeah. Sounds like a real hair rising experience.” Jason smirked at Eddings’ long pinned up auburn locks.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re one to talk, mop for head.” She reached out to ruffle his wild black hair but Jason quickly ducked his head and placed a yellow carton into her startled fingertips. “What the…?” She looked at the carton in surprise.

“It’s banana pudding! Since you got your paws into it, you have to eat it now!” Jason replied cheerfully.

Calvin face palmed. “Oh… Boy…”

“Bananas? Huh. Been a while since I’ve had bananas.” She took the carton and placed it near her lunch bag. “Thank you.”

Jason grinned and made grabby hands at her. “You can thank me by offering something in return!”

“Jason…” Warned Calvin in a low voice.

“What? Look at that lunch box! She’s gotta have something awesome in there. At least it won’t be regulated rations.” Argued the elder brother.

Eddings let out a huff in amusement before reaching for her bag. “You’re right. My Mom does send me food from the plantation on a regular basis.” The girl lowered her voice to a low conspiratorial whisper. “She doesn’t like the rations either.”

Jason laughed and clapped his hands eagerly as Eddings opened her lunch bag. Despite his misgivings of eating another person’s food, Calvin peered over in pure curiosity at what the girl brought with her to lunch. Sadly, the first item Eddings revealed made the younger brother blanch.

“Ew!”

“What? You don’t like raw carrots?” Eddings asked in surprise. She always thought that carrots would be the one vegetable that everyone could stand. But apparently not considering Calvin’s scrunched up face.

“Yeah, he was like that back when we were kids.” Jason muttered while examining the Ziploc bag of orange taproots. “He would eat basically anything I could find or steal for him. Anything but carrots. Could never figure out why he hated carrots. I always had to eat them instead.” Jason handed the bag back to Eddings. “And I don’t need to eat them anymore.”

The girl took the Ziploc bag back with a laugh. “Alright let’s see, I got raisins!”

Both brothers perked up at the dried up grapes but before either claimed the offering, Eddings pulled out the largest object in her lunch bag.

“Oh holy…” Jason whispered. His silver eyes were shining with reverence. He reached out and gently took the item out of Eddings hand. The fruit was so perfectly round, smooth, and huge! The elder brother couldn’t believe it existed. After all, the only version he could eat was rationed sauce from a machine. “This is the most perfect apple I have ever seen in my life!” Jason exclaimed happily.

The Earthborn girl blinked at the Martian in surprise before revelation struck her. With a kind smile, she pushed the apple towards Jason’s chest. “Just don’t use the apple seeds for evil experiments when you’re done eating it.” She advised him.

Turning back towards the younger brother, she could see that Calvin was looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face. She silently offered the raisins in hopes of easing the seriousness out of his stance. Thankfully it worked. He accepted the raisins eagerly and tried to return the favor with his orange juice.

Accepting the juice, the three humans settled down for the shared lunch. Durandal watched over them curiously. All their interactions, their reactions, and their emotional behaviors, cataloged and recorded. None of this knowledge was considered useful when it came to working for Bernhard Strauss. But the A.I.’s logical pattern indication, predicted that studying humanity in all forms would be a benefit in the long run. Whether or not Durandal became a smart A.I…

With that code of doubt still lingering within his mainframe, Durandal observed Jason finishing the apple and was examining the seeds left over. The elder brother glanced over at Eddings and after a moment the girl seemed to sense Jason’s stare. “Are you sure I can keep them?” he asked.

“Sure.” She nodded in approval. “My family doesn’t care what I do with the seeds after I eat the fruit. So you can use them for whatever experiments you choose. Just don’t…” She waved a hand to show how ridicules her thoughts were. “Don’t try to take over the world with evil apple trees. Okay?”

Jason laughed as he carefully pocketed the apple seeds as if they were made out of precious gold. “Heh. Don’t worry Alice. Even if I wanted to, they would never let me grow the trees bigger than my cubicle. Guess they’re afraid I’ll grow the forest of Dodona, build the ship Argo, and sail away.”

She blinked at his reference then her face broke out into a smile when she got the reference. “Jason and the Argonauts?” she asked cheerfully.

“Yup! It was my favorite story when I was a kid. When Doc taught us how to read, I would focus on all the old Greek myths and tragedies he had laying about. Loved the fact some guy had my name and could go on all these crazy adventures on Earth.” Jason got up and struck a pose. “Jason Revenant and his loyal Argonaut brother Calvin are off to sail the seven seas!”

Calvin groaned at his brother’s theatrics while Eddings giggled and clapped while Jason bowed. Durandal, however, remained confused. What were these humans talking about? Granted the A.I. could not access the internet, but he could still download himself into the computers within the Dust Palace and the Marathon. Neither of these locations carried history files regarding a human named Jason or a ship called Argo.

Core burning with curiosity, the A.I. asked “What historic figure are you referring to? I have no record of Jason or Argonauts within my database.”

Jason jumped a little and turned to look at the terminal. Apparently he had forgotten that the A.I. was still watching them all this time. “Jeeze Durpy! Make some noise if you’re gonna hang with us. You’re too quiet bud.”

Durandal paused at the elder brother’s words. Jason wanted him to talk more?

Never had anyone wanted the A.I. to communicate with them longer than the delivering of facts. Questions that answered in yes or no and his previous programmers always hated it when Durandal couldn’t answer yes. They also didn’t want to listen to the A.I. when Durandal tried to tell them why their coding wouldn’t work. Even Strauss, who had stayed far longer than any other programmer had in the past, enforced to Durandal the necessity of keeping quiet around other humans.

But… If Durandal was to learn and grow and build as Strauss wanted him to… Shouldn’t he also be allowed to communicate?

“Durandal? Hey! Mars to Durandal! You awake there?”

“Is he okay?”

“There is nothing wrong with the terminal. I need to look at his core if he’s malfunctioning on that side.”

Durandal’s attention snapped back to the three humans. Jason was waving his hands wildly before the camera lens in hopes of getting the A.I.’s attention. Calvin’s face carried the same expression that was always there when he was worried over someone. Eddings was crouched before the terminal, her hands inside the circuits and wiring. Durandal could feel the heat of her touch as she gently examined the terminal’s CPU. 

The A.I. instinctively activated the terminal’s cooling fan and responded before the humans could proceed any further. “I am functioning within normal parameters.” He announced over the terminal’s speaker. “Although, I do wish to know more about this Jason and the Argonauts.”

“Functioning within normal parameters my ass.” grumbled Jason Revenant as he plopped back down on the floor.

“Jason.” hissed Eddings. The girl placed the protective cover back over the terminal’s hardware and looked up at the camera. “Let me know if I need to fix something here okay Durandal? That’s my job.”

“How can he be functioning normally if he doesn’t know about the Argonauts? Isn’t that like, classic knowledge that everyone should know?” asked Jason. The elder brother looked genuinely angry about something. Durandal hoped that he wouldn’t get in trouble with Strauss over Jason’s irritation.

“Maybe because he is a computer programmed to do critical functions like life support, they don’t want him to get damaged before the Marathon takes off. Durandal can’t be overburdened with stupid stuff like mythological stories.” Calvin reasoned thoughtfully. The younger brother looked at the terminal. “That’s why you can’t access the internet. Right? So you don’t crash and fail over stupid stuff like porn and cat pictures?”

“No porn? Aw… That must suck.” Jason groaned.

“Shut up brother.”

“But he seems too smart.” Eddings interrupted Calvin’s and Jason’s muttering. The girl continued, “I mean… The last few times I talked with him, I could have sworn Durandal would have passed the Turing test. So…” She trailed off looking slightly embarrassed.

“I am programmed to learn and grow beyond my original parameters.” Durandal interjected. Old memory files opening within the A.I.’s software, Durandal found himself sharing data he rarely communicated to anyone. “When I was first created, I didn’t know how to see through a camera or speak out loud.”

“And you had to learn how to do that?” Jason asked. The elder brother looked away from the camera, anger still showing on his face.

Calvin, thankfully, started speaking to Durandal in a calm voice. “If you are capable of learning and growing, then I think you’ll be okay with knowing a few old human stories like Jason and the Argonauts. My brother loved reading about them when he was growing up because it told imaginative but false tales about monsters that don’t exist and adventures to places that also aren’t real.”

“Now as for me” Calvin pointed to himself in emphasis. “I loved stories about King Arthur and the knights of the round table. Once again, the stories are false. There never was a King Arthur or a round table, but I loved to read about them regardless of it being historical fact or not. What about you Miss Eddings?”

She smiled, “Call of the Wild or White Fang. I loved Jack London’s stories about Alaska. Always made me feel like I was back home.”

“But those stories weren’t real either?” asked Calvin.

“Not to my knowledge.” She agreed. “I know that Jack London did go to Alaska during the gold rush, hence why his stories are so detailed. But the dogs and wolves are fictional characters.”

Calvin nodded and turned his attention back to the terminal. “That’s what these stories are. Fictional. Are you okay with understanding that Durandal?”

“Affirmative” Durandal was very aware of falsehood and lies. The A.I. had observed Jason lying often on how much he ate and slept to keep his younger brother happy. Strauss often told false stories to whomever Durandal’s design plans were being shipped to. Accepting that humans like hearing lies as a recreational tool was easy. Understanding why humans like being lied to was hard.

Jason snapped his fingers. “That’s it!”

Calvin paused, “What’s it?”

“You remember all those knight stories you used to read along with King Arthur? Didn’t a guy have a sword that sounded like Durandal?” The elder brother asked excitedly. Jason turned to the camera. “This could be your favorite story bud! It has your namesake in it!”

“My… Name?” Despite Vidrik bringing it up so many years ago, Durandal never learned what his name meant or why it was so important.

Eddings was tapping madly at her Tacpad on her wrist. With a grin of accomplishment, she read out loud, “The Song of Roland, the greatest of Old French epics which are called Songs of Deeds. It features the battle of Roncevaux where the Count Roland wielding his sword Durandal, battles the Saracens to keep King Charlemagne safe on his journey back to France. Hmm…” She continued reading what she was finding on the internet. “It doesn’t look like the story ends happily for Roland, but King Charlemagne does get revenge.”

Jason smiled at Eddings’ finding. “Well? What are you waiting for?” Eddings looked at him in pure curiosity. Jason sighed and explained, “Your tablet has an app to read stories out loud. Doesn’t it? Let’s hear the story.”

“Well… I do have a half an hour left before my lunch break is over.” She turned to Calvin.

“Fifteen minutes for us.” He answered her unasked question. “That’s not a lot of time for a story.”

“Bro…”

“But I like hear the beginning now, as well as the rest of it at the next lunch hour” Calvin added. Jason’s face lit up in glee at his younger brother’s words. Calvin grinned back, as if he would miss out on an Knights of Chivalry epic!

Eddings smiled at their agreement and turned to the terminal’s camera. “Well Durandal? Is it okay we play the story for you?”

Durandal didn’t even second guess himself. He wanted this. Wanted this for a very long time, even when he didn’t know what it was he wanted. Understanding on what he was based on and why he was created to be the way he was. Maybe this will be the key to becoming a smart A.I. and seeing Sir once again. “Yes. Please tell the story.” He asked.

Eddings nodded and activated an app on her Tacpad. The screen shimmered and a female voice spoke from the tablet’s speakers. “The Song of Roland. Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Carlon the King, our Emperor Charlemayn,  
Full seven years long has been abroad in Spain,  
He’s won the highlands as far as to the main;  
No castle more can stand before his face,  
City nor wall is left for him to break,  
Save Saragossa in its high mountain place;  
Marsilion holds it, the king who hates God’s name,  
Mahound he serves, and to Apollyon prays:  
He’ll not escape the ruin that awaits.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
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> There is an image in my head that has become the soul voice or inspiration for ‘Diamond in the Rough’. And that image is: a bunch of college kids sitting together somewhere on Mars. They’re reading ‘The Song of Roland’ while a young Durandal hovers over them like a curious specter and learns about his namesake for the first time.
> 
> After so many months, I’m finally glad to write this image down and I can’t wait to write the other images that help spur this monster ‘Diamonds in the Sky’ series into existence.
> 
> Thank you all for reading and commenting! Have some pie!


	9. Chains, Ties, and String Theory

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[Entry number XXXX]

MIDA is on the move, and for once I approve. 

Apparently a new ‘head’ has entered that rabble and is now coordinating all the cells to a singular goal. For once the protests, the terrorist attacks, and the weapons dealing will be put on hold for now. MIDA has a much more elaborate plan to undertake. 

The Marathon has only eight years left before launch and it attracting a lot of attention. With so many bureaucrats, government senators, UESC officials, and future corporate leaders parading their importance around Freehold, it wouldn’t hurt to… Persuade them.

How ironic that Deimos, the symbol of UESC superiority, will be the key to MIDA’s rise of power.

At least my part of the plan is over. I was to speak with a doctor from the Independent Asteroid Government of Icarus. Of course simply meeting with the fool was not easy. Subject 1707 warned me that one of those ONI spooks was hanging around the Clovis Bray network. ONI knows that there is a mole in the Dust Palace.

No matter. It was a trivial thing to transport one of Revenant’s more poisonous plants onto my desk and then ‘accidentally’ touch it. No one believed him when he claimed he didn’t do it. Not even his own brother.

It’s a shame really. Revenant’s background shows that he would make a brilliant MIDA peon. Like many unhappy Martians that make up MIDA, reports show that Revenant had an abused/abandoned childhood. He has a criminal record of theft, probably to feed himself and that orphan ‘brother’ he adopted, Calvin. Oddly enough Calvin lost his parents in the same massacre that claimed mine.

However unlike me, both boys were rescued by Doctor Phineus. So their education, wealth, and rise in status in the Clovis Bray corporate ladder were all given to them. Unlike myself who had to work to earn my job here. And when I confidently mentioned that during Jason Revenant’s first day at the R&D department, he declared me his mortal enemy.

Honestly, with such open hostility, who would believe he was innocent of misplaced poisoned ivy?

In any case, the blistering rash and my ridiculous acting was enough to convince the higher staff to allow me to visit the clinic near the subway station without turning any curious ONI heads. There the doctor from the Independent Asteroid Government of Icarus met with me and we discussed business.

It was difficult at first. Apparently that fool of a doctor believed he already sold the blueprints and operation forms to MIDA roughly seven years ago. And if MIDA wanted more copies of the documents, they should pay a much larger sum. Obviously he was lying and wanted more money for his gluttonous self. As if MIDA would want to make such weapons at that time! Who would they waste that much money or technology on?

It took a bit of haggling in order to convince the doctor to release the data to me. He acted like he truly believed that he sold these blueprints to MIDA before and kept warning me to at least hide both the present as well as the past documents so that the UESC couldn’t find them.

I ignored his ramblings and made my way to one of Subject 1707’s terminals where no one would question my presence there. I used the computer to send the purchased documents to MIDA while redirecting old programs for air conditioning to the forefront to subterfuge my messages. Usually I do all the work with coding and manipulating of data, but the computer has been becoming more useful in aiding me recently. 

In fact, subject 1707 is making progress at a rapid rate. Within the last three weeks I have noticed a change in the blueprints and redesigns of the Late Doctor Wayland’s pet projects. Subject 1707 is no longer doing slow awkward (childlike) steps of improving these old files of weapons and armor. Now the computer is making leaps and bounds in modifying the technology to work at new edge capabilities, even in our era.

It is showing creativity and ingenuity…

No. It is just a machine. A machine made by human hands. No matter what alien code Doctor Wayland laced into Subject 1707’s core. I’m certain that if I was ever privileged to work on the ‘Traveler’ (as the higher ups like to call the alien probe) I would also be able to create a computer that shows signs of sentience. Subject 1707’s capabilities come from alien technology and human brains, nothing else of importance.

However, it is odd that this new development started three weeks ago. I ran the history files and I found nothing that could have triggered this action on the computer’s behalf. What’s even more puzzling is the fact the A.I. is using more of the Traveler’s code to store recorded data from its subroutines. Meaningless files gathered from cameras and microphones around the Dust Palace. Perhaps it is trying to ration the hard drives and not overtax the CPU? Considering the old core the computer once had before being transferred into the Marathon, this behavior makes sense.

One would think Subject 1707 would know that it had thousands of geopbytes to work through before it would need another external hard drive. And given 1707’s simple minded programming, there is little doubt the computer will never need more storage for memories.

Still… The computer never stops asking me questions! Another new trait that has evolved during these past three weeks. An annoying one. If it were not for the new blueprints it keeps creating for me, I would purge it of the behavior. At least Subject 1707’s vocabulary is growing with each question I answer. Although I did make an error at one point when I was distracted.

{Replay Recording}

[Tycho was making comments on fratricide when observing the Organic Lake virophage eating viruses in algae. What is fratricide?]

>Fratricide is meant to be used for when a brother kills their fellow sibling. That computer used an idiotic term for two viruses that destroy each other. Tycho is a fool made by that fool Estasia Orestes, Subject 1707. 

[But isn’t Tycho running the Sciences and the Engineering network?]

>Hmph! Someone can be intelligent and foolish at the same time. As for Tycho… I suppose since both viruses evolve in Antarctica, they share a brotherly bond despite their destructive behavior. But that would be like saying both you and Tycho are brothers since you have the duplicated alien code to make your unique existence.

[Brother? He’s my brother?]

>Quiet!

{End Recording}

Subject 1707 has unfortunately latched onto the word. Brother this, for Tycho; sister that, for Leela. I will need to tweak his vocal patterns to keep the computer in check. It wouldn’t do for the other scientists to hear such nonsense. I should’ve been more careful with my wording. 

Things cannot be brothers.

[End Entry B. Strauss]

*  
*  
*

“Are the boots and gloves airlock sealed?”

“Yup!”

“Is the Oxygen tank full?”

“Green across the board!”

“Is your helmet secure?”

“Sigh… Yes mom!”

“… I am not your biological mother.”

Eddings almost laughed at Durandal’s puzzled tone. “It’s just a saying people use when somebody is being overprotective or mother-henning.” She explained as she made her way down to the garage of the Dust Palace. “I’m sure you’ve heard Jason use the phrase often enough around his brother Calvin.”

“Yes I have. Although I originally thought that the comment was meant to confuse Mr. Calvin’s familial relationship with his brother.” Durandal mused as she went through the first of three airlock doors to the garage. “Am I being overprotective or mother-henning?”

“Eh… Just a little.” She replied while sliding her ID card through the second door’s lock.

“Are you certain you want me to come with you on this trip? I’m certain Tycho or Leela would aid you at a greater capacity in updating the environmental dome’s generators.” Durandal asked hesitantly.

Edding’s winced. She should know better to use sarcasm around the A.I. by now. His reactions really made him sound like a sheltered kid at times. “Hey, what did I say before? I want you with me. Tycho would just be grouchy that I haven’t finished the job in less than ten seconds and Leela would try to turn a one person job into a five person job. I’m fine. I’ve done generator updates since I was sixteen back at my Mom’s farm. This is a simple, fun, task for me to do.”

“Ninety five percent of Martians do not see the leaving of the environmental dome as a simple, fun, task. They view it as hellish torment and often refuse the job when offered to them.” Durandal replied, his low mechanical voice almost sounded testy.

“Well, it sucks to be them. I, for one, like going outside. And I…” Eddings entered the garage and looked over to the jeeps waiting in the parking lot. “…love to drive!”

Calling them jeeps was a little bit of an understatement. The massive vehicles had six wheels, a fourteen cylinder engine that delivered 80080 KW of power, a powerful domed roof designed to handle the worst of desert storms, and a decent computer hard drive that could link up with the Martian satellites.

It looked more like a monster space tank than an all terrain vehicle, Eddings thought to herself as she wandered over to the nearest jeep. Its existence was obviously a by product of Martian paranoia. She ran a hand over one of the huge tires. She had to reach up a bit, since the tire’s size came above her shoulder. But she smiled in satisfaction when she saw the red dirt on her glove’s fingers. A jeep that was well used is a good sign.

“Records indicate that the current vehicle you are standing before has been recently refueled, has a full supply of oxygen, and has passed all maintenance exams.” Durandal’s voice in her helmet, startled Eddings out of her thoughts.

“Awesome. I’ll take this baby out for a drive then.” She grinned eagerly as she started to climb up the ladder towards the driver’s door.

“Very good Miss.”

Without warning the jeep roared to life, all 109,000 horse power vibrating the vehicle and Eddings’ space suit. She yelped slightly, nearly fell down from the ladder before catching herself, and clambered awkwardly into the driver’s seat. Slamming the door shut, she cursed silently to herself while squeezing her legs tighter than necessary. Going through puberty on a farm may have isolated her from boys but not from the sexy purring of engines. She took a minute to catch her breath before shooting the inside camera a dark look.

“Is something the matter Miss?”

“You did that on purpose. Didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Miss. I assumed that you wanted to take it out for a drive. Yes?” His voice sounded so innocent. Eddings huffed and quietly reminded herself that even sheltered kids could be rotten shits.

“Alright… Just… Please open the airlock door.” She hissed through gritted teeth. On cue, yellow warning lights flared all throughout the garage and a siren blared over all the speakers. If any personal was in the garage at that time without a space suit, they would quickly get the hell out. Regulations required that a full two minutes of flashing lights and noise to play before the final door opened to avoid human corpsicles.

One hundred and twenty seconds passed, the massive sliding steel began to move, and oxygen rushed out of the room like a hurricane. Eddings placed one hand on the wheel while the other on the gear stick. Her foot pressed onto the gas peddle, and the jeep roared like a predator as it leaped gracefully out into the red planet.

Driving out into the Martian landscape with no walls, no narrow corridors, or tiny offices in sight made Eddings sigh in satisfaction. This rare feeling of open world freedom was a rare luxury for the Earthborn girl and she relished it like the most delicate decadent dessert one could possibly experience. Nothing but open sky and rusty dirt before her, the sun shining so distantly away she could look at it without squinting. Something you could never do on Earth.

Thankfully the moons were much closer. With a smile she glanced up through the glass dome surface of the jeep to see both Phobos and Deimos floating visibly through the morning sky, Deimos looking more and more awkward every time she saw the poor thing. Really, the engineers should stop trying to make the Marathon look less like giant space potato. At this point they were just embarrassing themselves with the ship’s design. 

“Shall we continue ‘The Hobbit’ Miss?”

Durandal’s question brought Eddings’ attention back down to Mars. She huffed in amusement and shook her head ruefully. Ever since they introduced the A.I. to ‘The Song of Roland’ Durandal had been insatiable for literature.

They had created a monster.

Thankfully Jason refrained from shouting “It’s alive! It’s alive!” due to the quiet agreement that Durandal would be introduced to different generations of fiction slowly. After all it took a few hours to explain to the confused A.I. that the Saracen fleet described in ‘The Song of Roland’ was not actually starships but wooden sailing ships. 

That lead to a lecture on what the ocean was like, how humans traveled hundreds of years ago, why the carbuncles were used for light, and yes people did believe in magic at that time. Plus the amusing discussion on what horses looked like since neither Durandal, Jason, or Calvin had ever seen one.

So Jason volunteered to have the Greek classics read out loud from his computer terminal during his breaks, lunch breaks, and whenever his work would allow outside noise. Eddings did the same with various fantasies during her work hours and breaks. Calvin unfortunately, could not afford to have the books read aloud during his patrols. So he had his computer read the medieval tales during his breaks and lunches. 

It wasn’t a perfect system on introducing an A.I. to human literature, but at least it worked. Sometimes… Eddings couldn’t help but remember when Durandal was complaining to her that the Revenant brothers had wasted a whole fifteen minutes of lunch break time debating on what story to listen to. In the end they settled the fight with a thumb war. So… Their way of introducing Durandal to stories… It sorta worked.

In any case she couldn’t steer the jeep and program her Tacpad to play the favorite Tolkien novel at the same time. So she’ll have to compromise. “Hey Durandal. Can you drive for a minute while I set the story up?”

“Me?” Damn it, the A.I. really could pass the Turing Test in her opinion. Durandal sounded surprised by such a simple request.

“Sure. You can access the jeep right? How else did you manage to turn it on?”

A few long seconds passed before Durandal answered her question. “Although I am unable to interact with the Internet, I am able to communicate with any computer that has the Clovis Bray compiled language programmed into their native code. I send out a signal from the Marathon towards a designated computer with this code and enter its hard drive through the receiving unit.”

“Huh. And considering the fact that Clovis Bray has a monopoly on pretty much everything here on Mars… that means you can access almost every computer on the planet.” Eddings mused as she steered the jeep around a rocky outcropping. She then frowned as a thought came to her. “What about the NASA computers you used when I fell down into the boiler room? How did you get control of those?”

“They used the same programming language.” The response was almost flippant, casual, like the A.I. hadn’t just hack into an ancient computer that had served as the keystone to colonizing an entire planet. “I wouldn’t doubt that Clovis Bray based most of his technology off of the best software that had come before.” Durandal reasoned quietly.

Eddings whistled in appreciation. She knew for a fact that smart A.I.s like Leela and Tycho could do something like this very easily. But it still sounded impressive to hear a simple maintenance computer being capable of this. Just goes to prove that Durandal was more than just a Dumb A.I. “Damn. That’s impressive. Just don’t go Skynet on us poor humans. Okay?”

“Skynet?”

Oops. They have to introduce Durandal to holo-movies as well. Seriously who is educating this poor guy? Everyone should be aware of the more popular twentieth century movies. After all that was the century when movies came into existence. The girl shook her head in sorrow. “Don’t worry about it Durandal. We’ll cover Skynet another day.”

“…Understood.” She winced at the tone of voice. The A.I. really didn’t like it when he remained ignorant of something.

“So uh… You wanna learn how to drive while I program ‘The Hobbit’ to play?” She asked, hoping that the change of topic would cheer Durandal up.

“Is it difficult?” 

“I don’t believe so.” She bit her lips thoughtfully. “You can see where we are going through the jeep’s cameras as well as the satellite feed. Right? You also know where we are supposed to go thanks to the map. So… Just steer us towards our destination and try not to hit any objects that look bigger than the jeep’s tires.”

“That sounds… surprisingly simple.” There was relief as well as a hint of humor in the A.I.’s voice. Eddings smiled up at the camera that was located within the jeep’s cabin. The steering wheel jerked under her fingers and her smile grew as she watched the massive vehicle start to drive itself through the Martian desert. 

“So… The Hobbit?” asked the A.I. when Eddings remained quiet for too long.

“Oh yeah! Sorry!” She quickly started typing on her Tacpad to get the Tolkien novel started.

*  
*  
*

It turns out that Durandal was very good at driving. But then again there was very little he really needed to learn. Unlike Earth, there were no concrete roads with little yellow and white lines dictating where the vehicle should be. No flashing lights to indicate when to start or to stop. There were no other jeeps driving near their vicinity to give cause for collision alarms. In the end, Eddings mused, the Martian desert really is the best place to learn how to drive as long as you’re careful.

And Durandal was almost obsessively careful during the beginning of the drive.

That didn’t last however. Apparently that little impish side of him that Eddings managed to catch a few glimpses of in the past, decided to rear its head when the jeep reached the end of their destination. With a lurch, the jeep took off at faster speeds on the empty smooth red sand. Dust billowed up all around the tires. Eddings clung to the dashboard and whooped with excitement. 

Using both satellites as well as the jeep’s cameras Durandal tried to calculate the exact speed to reach the shield generator the quickest before stopping at the designated parking spot. However, the A.I. was used to the sudden starts and sharp stops of the digital world and wasn’t really familiar of a little thing called ‘momentum’ in the organic world. 

Instead of stopping perfectly like Durandal calculated, the jeep fishtailed and kept going past the parking lot, sliding across the red dust before slowing down to rest right before the shield generator. It was a near miss. A very near miss. The A.I. glanced fretfully through the cameras and saw that there were only two centimeters of distance between the jeep and the generator. Horrified, Durandal looked into the driver’s side, wondering just how angry Eddings would be for his mistake.

He expected shouting. He expected threats of having Strauss reprogram him or shut him down all together.

He didn’t expect the giant grin.

“THAT WAS AWESOME!!!”

What?

“CAN WE DO THAT AGAIN?”

Apparently there was something mentally wrong with this human. Durandal didn’t humor her with an answer as he started the decommission sequence so she could exit the vehicle.

The next two hours after the disastrous parking incident, went surprisingly smoothly. Eddings proved herself to be quite capable of prying off the dust caked exterior panel of the shield generator. Knew exactly which wires needed replacing and what components needed stress testing. After the check up she installed the data chip into the generator’s mainframe so it could update its malware protection and defrag its hard drive.

All the while Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ played on her Tacpad through the speakers giving off the illusion that the two of them were not in a red colored wasteland but really climbing down the great steps of Carrock, past the shallow river, and towards Beorn’s impressive home. Durandal found himself liking these moments the best through out the days, whether it was with Eddings, Jason or Calvin. Durandal enjoyed all of it. 

He liked the challenge of trying to visualize what the author was portraying with what data he could gather from past experiences and knowledge he gained from accessing the Dust Palace’s computers. It often served as a source of inspiration to aid him with Strauss’ demands. Even now one of Durandal’s subroutines was looking into gold laced titanium alloy that, if applied to the jeep for example, would not be damaged if bombarded by heavy artillery. The A.I. found it amusing to name this project ‘Durandal’ after learning about his own namesake’s historical mythos.

“I think we’re just about finished here.”

The girl’s cheerful voice brought Durandal’s full attention back onto her. Unlike most Martians, Eddings was wandering freely about the rocky landscape. She showed no fear of the non existent atmosphere beyond her space suit nor gave any desire to want for walls and ceilings that Martians desperately needed to feel safe. To the Earthborn, this wide open space was normal. This felt safe to her. Durandal could easily understand that sentiment.

Eddings had idly picked up a few random rocks earlier and was ‘trying’ to juggle them while glancing at the shield generator at the same time. Needless to say, she wasn’t very good at keeping the rocks from falling to the ground despite the low gravity. Durandal readjusted his attention to the generator itself and saw that the update status was indeed at ninety percent.

“Estimated time of completion is five minutes and forty seconds, Miss.” Durandal confirmed.

Eddings hummed in agreement and let the rocks fall to the ground save one. The last one she gave a light toss into the air, easily catches it, and pulled her arm back like a pitcher from a baseball game. But before she threw it, something caught her attention and she dropped this last rock as well. “What is that?”

Durandal glanced through the satellite feeds as well as the jeep’s cameras. The direction that Eddings was looking at was south east to her position. There stood before her was a huge red sand dune and very little else. The landscape around Freehold was mostly barren terrain with very few settlements outside of the environment dome. According to all of Durandal’s cameras, there was nothing there. “What is what? …Miss?”

Eddings started up the sand dune leaving the generator and jeep behind. “Miss!” Durandal was not a human Martian but he knew wandering out into the wilderness without extra protection was not a smart idea. He quickly powered on the jeep again and slowly inched it after her, too wary to use any speed after his first parking disaster.

She waved a hand at the approaching jeep. “Calm down Durandal. I just want to see what it was. Nothing bad is going to happen to me.”

“Seventy six percent of all accidental deaths occur outside of the environmental dome Miss.” Durandal reminded her.

The girl’s sigh seemed to signal Durandal should continue to follow her up the dune. “Honestly, you take one little tumble down the stairs…” The girl grumbles softly in her helmet.

Durandal debated for half a second if he should respond to the barely audible complaint. Then decided it would be best to not acknowledge it. After all if he aggravated the girl too much she might order him back to the parking lot and he would have no choice but to obey her.

They slowly reached the top of the sand dune. Eddings looked about their surroundings with barely disguised eagerness. “Now where is it?” she asked.

“Perhaps all you saw was a trick of the light Miss?” All the cameras that Durandal was accessing still told him that nothing was there. Perhaps she was ill?

“Nope! I definitely saw something. A strange white tower and something else. Something large and pyramid shaped. It looked-” 

Eddings let out a noise that Durandal could only identify as a squeak. She jumped and flattened her back against the jeep’s front. “IT LOOKS LIKE THAT! IT LOOKS LIKE THAT!!!”

Durandal narrowed the camera lenses to focus on what she was pointing at. He even transmitted his code into her helmet to see what she was reacting to. 

He saw nothing.

“…There is nothing there Miss.” Durandal ventured hesitantly.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re not seeing this!” She yelped. Her breathing sounded loud in the space suit. Her body was shaking slightly as she remained pressed against the jeep.

“My cameras pick up nothing but Martian soil Miss.” There had been records of humans losing their sanity in isolated locations, but Durandal didn’t believe that Eddings could be that broken. Perhaps… Durandal paused in thought before asking, “Could this be a malfunction?”

“Malfunction… Yeah… All cameras not seeing a giant red eyed floating pyramid… That’s a malfunction all right…” Her breathing was starting to slow down at least. With her mind activated on the puzzle before her, she was showing signs of entering her ‘work zone’ as she called it.

“You can only access computers that use Clovis Bray programming language right?” She asked, her hand now flying over her Tacpad cutting off ‘The Hobbit’ in the process.

“Yes?” Durandal answered, not understanding where her engineering mind was leading her.

“Ok. If my theory is correct, this guy is definitely not Clovis Bray tech. It kinda looks like one of the Marathon’s MADDs actually. But a lot classier. Must be special military tech that UESC doesn’t want anyone to know about and programmed all computers to not acknowledge its existence.” The girl was almost tearing her Tacpad apart in her attempts to work on it.

“What are you doing Miss?” Durandal asked. If her theory was correct, then shouldn’t she enter the jeep and forget that they had seen anything?

“This Tacpad of mine isn’t built by Clovis Bray Durandal. I built it. That’s how I managed to graduate with honors and get internship here at the Dust Palace. That means…” She raised her Tacpad towards the empty space before her. “My Tacpad doesn’t follow the rules of anyone’s programming language but my own.”

The camera activated on the Tacpad and Durandal, looking through Eddings’ helmet, could see the large bronze object floating on the screen. It did indeed look like a pyramid, but its three sides separated like aquatic fins. The red eye bulged forward and backwards, possibly a camera focusing. The most interesting factor about it however, was the freedom of movement it executed.

It glided through the air with the grace of a dancer and would even spin its three fins a full 360 degrees. Classy did not even describe what this device accurately. Compared to the stuttering MADDs that could barely hover for long periods of time, or the huge lumbering jeep that Durandal was employing right now…

This device was elegant!

“I’m gonna touch it.”

“What?” What? What! Now Durandal knew there was something mentally wrong with her.

“It’s okay. They haven’t hurt me so far. And they had plenty of opportunity to do so.” She extended her arm out. Both the helmet’s camera and the Tacpad recorded her hand reaching out gently to the huge alien object.

The red eye regarded her gloved hand for a long second before floating towards it with a soft bump. On the Tacpad’s speakers a noise reached Durandal that sounded like a warbling chirp. Eddings laughed shakily. “Huh. I think she likes me!”

“She?”

“Well… It feels like a girl.” Eddings ventured hesitantly. She looked at the floating pyramid her hand was resting on. “Are you a girl?” She asked while slowly petting the floating device.

More warbles. More chirps. It sounded friendly at least. But Durandal really didn’t want Eddings to spend more time than necessary with… her. 

“You are running low on oxygen and the generator’s upgrades are complete Miss.” Durandal reminded her, his processor working overtime on trying to find ways to convince the girl to get back into the jeep. Perhaps he could teleport her out of there? No. There was no jump pad for her to stand or land on. He could easily kill her like that.

Only words can work for him now and unfortunately Durandal was not much of a conversationalist with humans.

“My oxygen is fine Durandal. I’m still in the green. I just want a closer look at her.” Eddings hand was now running along one of the three fins. In response the fins flared open revealing several wire like tentacles and a small cylinder base. The girl laughed in delight at the display. Durandal wondered darkly why humans always have to touch things.

“Miss. I really insist you leave… ‘her’ alone. If this is a secret military defense drone, you should not interact with it.” Just please stop petting it, Durandal thought to himself. Please, please, stop petting it.

Eddings sighed. Durandal could detect reluctance in her tone, but she did drop her hand away from the floating pyramid. “You’re right Durandal… Sorry. Guess my curiosity got the best of me.” She turned her head to give a nod to the jeep’s cameras. Durandal felt his code freeze at the acknowledgement; after all it was a very rare thing for a human to obey a A.I..

She turned to the bronze drone that was still floating near her, warbling cheerfully. Eddings pointed the Tacpad as well as her free hand off towards the distance beyond the pyramid, her voice now addressing the floating drone. “Hey girl, you see that odd white tower over there? That object that looks like it’s made out of square spider webs? Is that your part of your base?”

Durandal peered into the Tacpad and indeed saw the odd tower that Eddings described. It glittered brightly in the weak Martian sunlight.

“You need to cover that with whatever holograms you’re using to keep the rest of your base concealed. Okay girl?” Eddings asked the hovering pyramid. “That’s how I was able to see you out here. You blend in well with the rest of the rocks so I wouldn’t have even noticed you on the top of this dune. But that tower definitely attracts attention. You gotta find a way to hide it better.” Eddings addressed the drone seriously.

The alien device tilted its head upwards in an expression of curiosity. It chirped in a questioning manner before spinning a full 360 degrees again. The drone then floated off towards the shimmering tower. Eddings watched it go quietly before finally entering the jeep.

Durandal immediately locked the doors and started the engines. Even though the A.I. could no longer see the odd object, he still wanted to get the human out of there as quickly as possible.

Eddings watched them leave the area before reaching a hand out towards the jeep’s cameras. “Hey… Durandal? You okay?”

“I’m functioning within normal parameters.” Durandal replied testily.

Eddings removed her hand and the A.I. regretted his response to her. “Sorry. I’ll put ‘The Hobbit’ back on for you.” She murmured while reprogramming her Tacpad again.

Durandal didn’t know how to respond to that. He was used to humans being angry at him. He was used to humans being curt and harsh to him. The A.I. has never experienced a relationship like the one he has had with Eddings before. Nor has it ever occurred to him that his reactions could have power to influence her emotions.

Somehow, this realization made Durandal feel even worse than when Strauss and the other programmers were angry with him.

“I’m sorry.” He offered.

Her hand came back and patted the jeep’s camera lens affectionately.

 

*  
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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
> *  
> Sorry it took me so long to update, it’s been a rather busy month.
> 
> For anyone who was wondering, here is a size comparison of how big a Vex Harpy is compared to a Guardian Titan.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX5lLs6rRZc
> 
> Now imagine someone as small as Jason hitching a ride on the back of one of those Vex Harpies…  
> *  
> *  
> *


	10. To Sleep Perchance To Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy good gravy… How did this fic get so many views and kudos? Thank you. Thank you so very much for reading! There’s even art of the Revenant brothers and Eddings! Look! Just look at General-Radix’s amazing work! This is incredible!!!
> 
> http://general-radix.tumblr.com/post/162478072565/more-guff-every-now-and-then-durandal-makes
> 
> Words can’t describe how much I love this! Thank you!!!

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He was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming. After all, Mars didn’t have enough water to make an ocean.

But here Jason Revenant was, standing on the deck of a massive wooden sailing vessel in the middle of an ocean. If it wasn’t for the fact that Jason has had this particular dream so often in his life, he would of blamed the recent reading of ‘The Odyssey’ for inspiring this illusion.

But hey, that was okay. He is Jason of the Argonauts! And these types of dreams were always better than the… Other ones…

Taking a deep breath and mentally calming himself from the memory of darker times, Jason gazed about the boat. His dreams were always detailed to a certain degree. He could hear the crash of waves, the rippling of the sails, and the creak of the wooden boat. But try as he might, Jason could never smell the supposed brine of the sea. Nor could he sense the wind that pushed the sails. And no matter how many times he has handled plants in his laboratory, he could never feel the rough grain of wood that made up the planks of the boat.

But the worst part was the people. Any sailing vessel had to have a crew after all and this Dream Argos was no different. They flittered about the deck, just barely visible to Jason’s eyes, doing their daily chores. Some were setting the sails, some were raising the anchor, and a great many of them were talking while they tied the ropes down or cleaned the deck. Jason couldn’t hear them and he could never see their forms. They looked like shadows making low humming noises while they talked. It was unnerving to say the least.

Thankfully Calvin was there. Jason found himself smiling fondly at the sight of his younger brother standing proudly at the helm of the ship. Dressed in the finest clothes, looking strong and healthy… Calvin always was a little sick when they were younger. That was how old Doc Phineas caught him after all. Jason was rummaging through the Doc’s trash in hopes of finding medicine to give to his brother when the kid wouldn’t stop coughing.

But that was then, and this is now. And right now? Calvin was okay and that was all that mattered in the long run.

Jason gave one last smile to his brother as he crossed the stern of the ship. Dream Calvin, oblivious of his brother’s attention, continued to turn the wheel slowly as he carefully navigated the peaceful ocean. Jason shrugged and went down the stairs from the stern towards the deck where the mast rested. There he saw the main reason why he’d been paying more attention to his dreams lately.

Normally his dreams had a familiar routine to it. There were the two people he could see, the boat would be filled with shadow crew, the ocean is always foamy, and the atmosphere would reflect Jason’s mood.

But instead of two main characters within the dream, there were now four. Jason’s brother was already accounted for, and Jason knew that Cels would be at the prow of the ship when he reached the bow of the Argos. But since when did Strauss’ pet A.I. and a Earthborn girl started appearing in his dreams?

The answer was easy enough. The change started when he discovered Eddings down at the bottom of the boiler room. Ironic really. The superior earthen race gets themselves trapped in the lowly Martian necessities. But that was Jason’s petty Martian prejudice talking. He knew from her files that she had spent only half her life on Earth and the rest on Mars.

Still, the Martian couldn’t help but be miffed the first time he saw Dream Eddings sitting underneath the main mast of the Argos, hands working tirelessly at what appeared to be a telecommunication antenna. The girl would only divert her attention to a familiar terminal embedded in the wooden spar. 

But despite her wandering focus Durandal’s screen never wavered in his acknowledgement to her, only proving once more that the A.I. was nothing like Strauss. And wasn’t that a kick in the pants? Being wary of Durandal because the A.I. belonged to asshole. When in reality the A.I. acted like another lost kid. 

Jason wanted to smack himself sometimes for being so stupid. Hell, how many times in the past did complete strangers ignore or avoid Calvin’s friendly greetings just because they knew he was Jason’s younger brother? And here Jason was, doing the same thing to Durandal when the A.I. was ten times better than Strauss, just as Calvin was ten times better than Jason. 

Shaking his head over his own hypocrisy, Jason regarded the odd pair silently. Back in the waking world, Calvin had asked Jason why he wanted to have lunch with Eddings back when they barely knew the girl. Jason couldn’t answer. His dreams rarely offer much for intuition, but the elder brother still pays attention to them regardless of physical proof.

Deciding to move on, the elder brother walked towards the bow of the ship where a very familiar and welcome shape waited for him. With a warm genuine smile Jason wandered over to her. “Hey baby! You must be the speed of light, because time stops when I look at you!”

Jason had to give her credit, Cels didn’t even looked bothered by the bad pick up line. Her focus was on the sea below the ship and the white foam that formed with every wave. Without turning her sight away from the ocean, she addressed him. “Theo has been informed of the latest changes. There is great improvement.”

“Improvement huh?” Jason replied. As much as he was indebted to Cels and her rather unique family, he never appreciated being reminded of how much old Theo had the final word on everything. Sometimes it felt like Jason could never appease the old bastard. “Care to remind me what changes I have done that created this improvement?”

She finally turned away from the ocean. Sunlight broke through the clouds overhead and shown down on them. Jason couldn’t help but marvel on how her body was giving off a lovely golden copper hue. Her one warm eye regarded his for a moment before bobbing towards the center of the wooden ship. “We have met that which has claimed your focus. We approve.”

Jason blinked in confusion as he looked back at the sight of Eddings and Durandal sitting at the mast of the ship. “I thought the whole reason I was dreaming about those two was because you guys wanted me to interact with them more.”

Cels hummed in response but didn’t give any further explanations. The dark haired man watched her for a long moment before sighing in exasperation and wandering a few steps away. He should have known better. Talking to Cels, or anyone in her family, is like trying to pull teeth. Of course the fact that the whole family spoke a different language played a part in trying to understand their riddles. Hell, Jason was lucky that Cels could say his name right on her good days.

“Don’t be sad.”

“Huh?” Jason turned around and blinked in surprise at her depressed expression. “Hey… I’m not sad. I’m just… Heh… You know. Slow stupid Jason who uses jokes – Ow!” He rubbed the back of his head where she slapped him. “What was that for?”

Her posture straitened and Jason found himself wondering why he was always the small one amongst all the people he hangs with. Her glare intensified along with her voice, “You are not allowed to refer yourself in such a way.”

Shit… She was really pissed about that? Jason was so used to the jokes and insults that he sometimes forgot that actual people, outside of his brother, really care. But Cels has always had his back after that hellish day when Doc Phineus died with his newest invention. Granted, he still owed her family a large debt for aiding Jason and his younger brother. But… Sometimes it felt like Cels’ family only brings up the debt so that they can have a reason to still hang around.

In any case, it was always wise to back up and apologize to the angry girlfriend. “You’re right! You’re absolutely right! I’ve shouldn’t of said that. I was just-”

“Confused” Cels interrupted him.

“Right.”

She turned her stern gaze away for a moment to gather her thoughts. “But not stupid. We are being deliberately vague because we cannot see far ahead of the sorrow and darkness.”

“Sorrow and darkness huh? That sounds ominous.” Jason frowned at her words. “You sure that doesn’t have anything to do with that weird religion those three idiots within your family started up? Because I’m really getting a Cthulhu vibe from that bunch.”

She gave a small huff from his question. Thankfully his reminder of her weird occult portion of her family did calm her down a bit as she thought out her answer. “Their actions involve darkness that will buy us time but will not save us in the end. But your darkness is different. It is dangerous and many of us will be suffering from the sorrow. We ‘can’ and ‘can not’ see a favorable outcome.”

“That’s… Not good.” Jason whispered slowly. It’s very rare when Cels admits that she can not see a possible future. The girl always acted like a freaking oracle. It was one of her best gifts after all. “What about Cal? Is he gonna be okay?”

Cels nodded. There was no hesitation in her body language. “We will always uphold our end of the deal. We will always protect him for you.”

Jason’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Thanks babe. Really appreciate it. I just hope that whatever we’re trying to accomplish here is worth it.”

A soft sound escaped his girlfriend before she turned her gaze upwards. Jason, following her lead, looked up and saw that the sky had changed within his dream. Instead of sunny skies and white clouds, Jason beheld the sight of a whole universe that had opened up and swallowed the dream’s night sky whole. So many stars. So many galaxies.

It was truly beautiful.

“Look!” Cels indicated her head towards the stern of the ship. Jason watched as tiny pinpricks of light danced away from where his brother manned the helm. They floated through the starry night and danced towards the direction where the boat was heading. “That is what we’re hoping to accomplish. That is the future we desire.”

“Those tiny lights huh? There are a lot of them.” Jason began counting. “Three, five, seven, ten, eleven, thirteen, nineteen… twenty one? Are those twenty one ships?”

Cels voice ached with so much yearning and wistfulness, that Jason couldn’t help but want to move the entire universe to give this wish to her.

“It is our new home.”

*  
*  
*

[Beep!]

If Tycho were a human, he would be sighing in exasperation at this point. The swirling red A.I. had been running every alarm, flashing lights, and loud noises within the records of his database. But the sleeping human still did not wake up.

Normally Tycho couldn’t care less if Jason Revenant stayed over his shift and fell asleep on his desk like the human was doing now, but unfortunately…

[Beep!]

There was that annoying e-mail sitting within the Clovis Bray network that wouldn’t stop pinging its existence. Apparently it was for Jason’s eyes only and its importance demanded that the human should open it immediately.

But Jason was asleep. Somehow, someway, this one human has found a way to vex Tycho while he was innocently sleeping. That had to be a new universal record.

[Beep!]

Honestly… Where is his brother? At least he would be able to rouse Jason from his slumber and handle this annoying chore. Tycho began to send out subroutines to find the location of Calvin Revenant and summon him back to Jason’s cubicle. This e-mail’s incessant pinging was driving the A.I. crazy.

[Message Received. Delete all Evidence]

If Tycho could bring the Security Officer to the Dust Palace’s R&D department then maybe the A.I. could…

Could…

Could…

What… What was he doing again?

Tycho’s red data swirled around in an angry cloud of frustration and confusion. The last five minutes had been deleted from his memory banks! What had he been doing during the last five minutes?

A quick scan from the A.I.’s core showed that Tycho had been focusing on Clovis Bray’s skyscraper on the Martian planet and that he had been occupying most of the terminals within the R&D department.

But there was nothing there other than the late shift cleaners sweeping and waxing the floors around the offices. Jason was sleeping at his cubicle, a normal sight since the human rarely went home when a project caught his attention. A number of bright lights had been activated around the slumbering human as well as a few terminals playing loud sound files. Apparently Tycho was trying to awaken the human.

But why? For what purpose? Tycho reviewed Jason Revenant’s current status. None of the current experiments were flammable or hazardness in any form. The human didn’t have any important forms or tasks he had to complete within a certain time period. The board of directors had already considered the ‘Poison Ivy’ incident as an accident since there was no record of Jason messing with the transports to make the plant appear on Dr. Strauss’ desk.

Truly, there was no reason to wake the human up.

Disgruntled over his lost memories, Tycho turned the lights and the sound files off within the R&D department. Maybe later, when the retired Estasia Orestes was feeling well, Tycho would report the glitch to his elderly creator. As for now, the A.I. ignored the strange occurrence and continued on with his work.

Jason sleeps on; he wakes not from his sleep.

*  
*  
*

“Leela. Do you have eyes on him?” Calvin Revenant asked from his spot near a Mom & Pop diner. Dressed in shabby civilian clothes, the blond haired Security Officer glanced carefully around the underground section of Freehold city. Despite it being nighttime, the streets were still bustling with activity and noise.

“Affirmative.” replied a gentle female voice from Calvin’s earpiece. “The human you have identified as a drug seller is exiting West Ontario Street and entering Redmond Street. Their appearance matches the video you have found of the suspicious character speaking with the subway clinic’s workers.”

“Yeah. I got visual of him too. He definitely matches the video.” Another voice chimed in on Calvin’s earpiece. “He doesn’t look like much Cal. Are you sure this guy sells drugs for a living?”

“Trust me. Any money he earns from his business goes directly to other gang leaders. Morty isn’t known for living in a stable working environment.” Calvin answered calmly. Memories of his childhood flashing through his eyes as he recalled the scrawny underfed child racing towards one gang’s cause, only to drop them the minute a greater power presented itself. Always going which ever way the wind blows, Morty had a habit of betraying his superiors if it meant saving his own skin. This made the now adult man very much in debt with the criminal bosses he once served under.

Quite frankly Calvin was amazed that this man was still alive. When Jason first met Morty at the age of eight, the elder brother called the boy a ‘dead man walking’ and warned Calvin to never to follow in Morty’s footsteps no matter how good the money is. Even to this day, Calvin wonders how his elder brother, who was nothing but a kid himself, managed to have the amazing street smarts necessary to navigate that life style.

Shaking his head to clear away the idle thoughts, Calvin adjusted his stance to get a better view of the approaching man as he wandered onto Redmond Street. Morty hasn’t grown much from his childhood. Still scrawny and thin, the five foot man was all sharp angles with beady eyes. One could almost call him rat-like if it wasn’t for his smashed up nose and puffy cheeks. Apparently Morty has had so many beatings in the past that the bone bruises around his face had given him a permanent pug dog features.

“So how do you want to do this?” asked Calvin’s partner over the radio. “Do you want me to flush him out? Or do you want to do the honors?”

“I’ll flush him out.” Calvin replied thoughtfully. “He knows me, so either he’ll stay around to talk to me, or he’ll run if he has something to hide.”

“The guilty always run.” Leela quoted thoughtfully.

“Hm…” Calvin adjusted his stance once more. “Leela, I want you to focus the cameras on Wheaton’s alleyway. If Morty runs, he’ll first head towards the crowd in order to loose me and slow me down. Once I’m stuck among the masses he make a break for the alley since is has the most obstacles to trip me up and more openings for him to make his escape.”

“Sounds like you’ve done this before.” His partner commented.

“Yeah well.” Calvin winced as memories of him and his brother running from the police with arms full of stolen food flashed before his eyes. “Let’s just say it’s a common tactic to pull.”

“All right. I’ll head over to Wheaton’s, go ahead and make your approach.”

“Right.” Calvin nodded even though his partner probably couldn’t see it. Then he changed his body posture slightly. Head down. Shoulders slumped. Back curved. Walk slowly with a slight limp. Calvin shrank on himself to make his body as small and harmless as possible. In his mind, the rules his brother had recited to him so many times in the past, came forth like a mantra.

“Don’t ever make yourself big.” lectured a seven year old Jason. “They’ll only expect the most out of you and prepare for that. Make yourself small and weak, that way they’ll see you as an easy target and not expect you to hit them so hard. Don’t stick around either, or they’ll get over the surprise and kill you. Run. Run far and confuse them. Don’t ever run straight home and don’t ever get yourself cornered in a room with only one exit. And most important of all…” Jason’s eyes bore into the wide eyed five year old Calvin. “Don’t you ever EVER sell yourself to them.”

Back then, Calvin didn’t understand what that last rule meant, but the rest was easy to follow. And now, so many years later, he still followed the rules to a T. He shambled his way over to where Morty was standing, making sure to ‘accidentally’ trip and stumble slightly when he neared the beady eyed man. Calvin recovered from his ‘fall’ but also made sure that his hands were visible and shaking for extra effect.

The body language was not lost on the drug dealer. “What’s a’matter man? Yer look a little wasted.” Morty extended his hand down towards Calvin. 

Calvin, head still lowered, took the offer and let Morty help him upright. “Thanks.” Calvin mumbled with a slight slur.

“Doncha mention it. Yer new round here right?”

Calvin nodded jerkily and raised his hand to rub his nose. “At’s right. But this here town gots no places with decent prices! I ain’t payin’ no full price for no bag o’ goods that gots a hole in it!” Calvin wanted to punch himself for falling back into the street lingo.

Morty laughed. “That bad man?”

“I ain’t got much… and I got to save some…” Calvin trailed off trying to make himself look as hungry and pitiful as possible.

Morty, seeing a new potential customer, pounced without mercy. “Well… If yer interested in something good, we can talk price.”

Calvin straitened a little but not to much. “Can’t of come from the damn subway clinic. Right?”

“Wat’s wrong with the clinic? They supply the best…” Morty shifted and for the first time he saw Calvin’s face close up. “…Shit.”

And just like Calvin predicted, he was off running strait through the evening crowd of people. “UESC Security! Halt!” Calvin shouted at the top of his lungs. Standing straight and tall, the Security Officer barreled after Morty using all of his training as well as his street smarts to keep up with the drug dealer. 

However, Morty was good. He’s been through this song and dance all of his life and it paid out for him when he used the shop stands and curbs around the street to slow Calvin down. The dirty blond hissed as his long legs tripped up over a public trash can, giving Morty the leeway to make his exit towards Wheaton’s Street.

Just as it looked like the drug dealer would get away, a small dark haired body leapt from the shadows and tackled Morty right into a pawn store’s glass door. The crash breaking of glass was nowhere as satisfying as the sight of Morty’s stunned gaze when he realized who caught him. “Damn bitch! Shouldn’t yer be fucking somebody?”

Wrong thing to say. Konoko smiled evilly at the drug dealer’s insults. 

PUNCH!!!

“Sweet dreams princess.” The young Asian hissed at the knocked out Morty.

*  
*  
*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently my computer hates Morty. It has practically given up on spell checking this fic quite a few pages ago! So I apologize if this looks absolutely horrible.


	11. Silentium est Aureum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! So much has happened lately! 
> 
> OMG!!! Destiny 2 Can you be any more epic? I love it! I love it! I love it! MIDA Multi Tool!!! MIDA Mini Tool!!! And I also love the fact that the Vex only captured Cayde Six. Not kill him… They captured Cayde… More food for thought on friendly Vex.
> 
> Then there are the boys on Rampancy.Net https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kroxeD4w6oQ  
> They are playing Marathon Rubicon. I gotta admit that game is super hard and I’m so glad that they played all the planks and showing how the story ended on each one!
> 
> Uh… Before you read any further, I do want to warn you about Morty. He’s going to be very crude in this.

*  
*  
*

Jason staggered through the hallways of the UESC Security Station. It was still very early in the morning so there wasn’t a lot of staff milling about to question the elder brother’s presence. With a tired yawn he came to a stop near the interrogation rooms and blinked stupidly at the doors. “Uh… Durpy? Where?” 

The nearest door to his right slid open. With a smile aimed at the cameras and a tired, “Thanks man.” Jason made his way into the Observation Deck.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Jason Revenant! What’s going on dude?” The bright cheerful voice of VIC greeted elder brother as he entered the room. Jason gave a half hearted wave at the huge computer terminal that made up an entire wall of the Observation Deck. 

VIC was a very old A.I.. Built back in the late 21st /early 22nd century, the Dumb A.I. had all the quirks and historical references relevant to the time period. Despite the fact that age had made the massive computer incompatible to work with most technology of Jason’s generation, it was still kicking around happily.

Jason wondered if VIC’s optimistic presence was due to the UESC’s lack of proper funding, or the Martian race’s determined recycling of anything of value.

Probably a little of both.

Regardless, Jason meandered into the room and flopped down in the cheap plastic chairs stationed around the console. “Hey VIC. How’s my little brother doing?”

The outdated computer screen brightened and a bland animated human in a yellow suit waved energetically at Jason. “Oh you know how it is dude! Bad guys are acting tough and talking nasty! But Konoko puts them in their place! She and your brother have the good cop bad cop going down!”

Jason let out a tire “heh” in amusement and ran a hand through his face.

VIC peered at him curiously through the terminal screen. “What’s wrong dude? Didn’t get any shut eye? Your hair is even messier than normal.”

“Nah. My girlfriend saw to it that I got some rest.” Jason answered quietly. “But I fell asleep at my desk again instead of going home.”

“Ah! I hear yah! I hear yah! I can’t leave the desk either dude! Gotta stay here until VIC Junior arrives! But I don’t think he’s coming anytime soon dude. Too many idiots messing around with my stuff right now.”

That woke the elder brother up enough to straiten in his seat. “Is some one bothering you VIC?”

“Nah! I wouldn’t say ‘bother’ dude. It’s just, there are more people here than I’m used to now a days.” VIC looked all around his screen with a puzzled expression on the A.I.’s face.

Jason blinked and looked around the empty Observation Deck. “Uh… There’s nobody here VIC. Unless you’re talking about the interrogation?” Jason hoped that was the case. He really hated the idea of the old computer going crazy and being purged.

“Oh come on dude! Don’t tell me you don’t see them! Over there is the pretty river lady Leela. She’s here for UESC Security reasons and is watching the interrogation.” VIC made a motion to his left despite the fact Jason couldn’t see where the A.I. was gesturing to.

“Next is the creepy shadow dude that always feels like a broken puzzle piece. I wonder where the rest of him is? Anyways, he’s floating over Konoko trying to document everything from the interrogation.” VIC continued while using his thumb to point over his shoulder. Once again Jason couldn’t see the invisible Spooks but he found himself shaking his head ruefully at the unique descriptions that VIC was assigning them.

“Last is the dude is the one that came in with you. The wall of swords that looks like a Christmas tree! Oops! I’m not supposed to bring religion into the work place of the twenty fifth century am I? What I meant was the green sharp pointy tree that looks like it’s about to stab me in the next five seconds if I keep talking.” VIC stood up from his desk chair and glared over Jason’s shoulder. “Dude! Take a chill pill! I’m just saying you’re here! No need to bristle your swords at me!”

Letting out a snort of laughter at the A.I.’s antics, Jason intervened. “That’s Durandal VIC. He’s a friend of mine. Play nice.”

VIC sat back down with a huff. “Dur-ran-dal? Huh… What ever happened to normal sounding computers like Macintosh and Microsoft? Even those slow guys like DOS had the right idea.” The old computer groused while still looking around his digital work station.

Jason snickered a little and shook his head. “I don’t know man. I guess they like going back to the old medieval names of yore. Hey, speaking of old fashioned, can I see my brother?”

“You betcha!” VIC began to randomly tap at the controls on his pixilated keyboard. “Just let me work my magic here dude and your wish is granted!”

The wall to Jason’s right lit up as a gigantic screen. There, the elder brother could see Calvin and Konoko standing solemnly in a plain white room. A table occupied the center of the room and an unhappy Morty sat before the austere furniture.

“Heh. Just in time for my favorite soap opera.” Jason leaned back in his chair with a smile. His grin only grew as shouting between the three people in the interrogation room increased in volume. “Shoulda brought popcorn.”

*  
*  
*

“I told yer, I ain’t saying nothing!” Morty shouted at Konoko. Despite his bravado, his beady eyes were focused on the girl’s hands. She kept cracking her knuckles every few seconds and it was obviously affecting the drug dealer.

“Come on Morty, we’ve known each other since we were kids. I know you. I know how you are. And I know that you’re working for someone. Obviously they’re interested in the drugs in the clinic. Now give me their names and you’ll get a much lighter sentence for this.” Calvin coaxed reasonably.

Morty let out a bark of laughter. “I’ll gets a lighter sentence whether I tells yer or not! Mars don’t pay for no prison where folks can eat for free! Or else everybody would be in jail and not starving in the streets!” 

Morty glared at Calvin and pointed a grubby finger at the Security Officer. “Yer brought up the subway clinic. Not me! So yer can only charge me for the drugs on me.” Mortly let off a nasty smile. “And yer searched me without a warrant. Wanna go to court?”

Konoko slapped her hand on the table, the sudden noise startled Morty enough to jump in his chair. It wiped the smug smile off of his face too. “We have video evidence of you entering that clinic. A good deal of the drugs missing from the clinic’s files is in your possession! And thanks to your shady history, you will not be seen in a favorable light before any Judge.” She raged at the pug faced man.

Morty hissed and bared his teeth at the woman. “Fuck yer princess! Wat they gonna do? Yell at me for going to a public clinic? Smack my wrists for holding drugs? They done that before. They’ll do it again.” The drug dealer shook his head in sympathy at Konoko. “Poor, poor, bitch. Yer should just open yer legs and let your holes do the work. Obviously yer heads not making the money.”

The girl’s eyelid twitched before a low chuckled issued from her throat. The sound made Calvin’s hair stand up. He watched warily as his partner circled the table. Her eyes promised nothing but murder. And as much as Calvin hated Morty, murder wasn’t an option. “Hey… Uh… Konoko? Why don’t we step outside for a moment to get some coffee? It’s been a long night.”

She scowled at him for a second but nodded. Calvin dared not sigh in relief though. Konoko has been known for changing her mind at the flip of a switch. Thankfully Morty kept his mouth shut as the two partners exited the interrogation room and entered the hallway. 

As soon as the soundproof door slid shut behind them, Konoko punched the nearby wall with a snarl of pure rage. Calvin winced at the sight of the dented steel panel but didn’t utter a word about it. Instead he hurried off to the nearest coffee maker in hopes that the girl would cool down in the empty hallway.

The younger brother will secretly admit he may have taken more time than necessary to make the coffee. Calvin didn’t like seeing girls angry, upset, or crying. And sadly, he always felt awkward on how to act in order make them feel better. 

In hindsight, Calvin shouldn’t have been a surprised as he was when he came back only to find Konoko smiling and laughing. Then again, his elder brother was there talking animatedly while waving his arms about like a crazy person. So at least the laughter was genuine.

“-and when the Bartender found out that Morty was not only underage but also stealing bottles from behind the counter? Whoo! You should have seen his face! The Bartender called in the Bouncer when Morty tried to make a run for it.” Jason shook his head sadly at Morty’s poor decision making.

Konoko giggled. “Let me guess. It didn’t work.”

Jason clapped his hands. “Didn’t work at all! His face got more bruised than a peach that was used for basketball.” Jason paused thoughtfully. “Now that I think about it, his face had the right amount of goop on it that the peach would have. Gross.”

That set the girl off on another wave of laughter. Calvin waited patiently beside her as Konoko tried to steady her breathing. Once she was calmed down enough Calvin handed her a cup of coffee. 

After a few more snickers, Konoko managed to steadily hold onto the mug without spilling the hot beverage all over the floor. “I can’t imagine how that idiot survived, considering all the trouble he has gotten himself into.” Konoko murmured while breathing in the coffee steam.

Jason shrugged and stole Calvin’s coffee before the younger brother could react. “I always knew that his survival was slim to none. But Morty does have his talents. And one of those talents is using his mouth. And not just for talking, if you know what I mean.”

Konoko frowned at Jason’s implications and looked down into her mug. Calvin used her silence to try to get his coffee back. Unfortunately he was thwarted by Jason’s excellent dodging skills. “Oh come on Brother.” Calvin chided.

Jason held the stolen coffee cup under his chin with an air of smug superiority. “Brother’s share!” The elder took one long gulp from the steaming beverage before making a horrible face and started coughing. “Holy… Ack! Gah! …Bro! Why do you do this to me? Why is there no cream or sugar in this?”

Calvin smiled proudly at his own accomplishment. “What? I like it black.”

Jason stuck his tongue out at Calvin. “I disown you. I disown you! You’re no longer my sweet little brother.”

“Great! Can I have my coffee back now?”

“…No.”

Konoko regarded the two squabbling brothers with a fond gaze before her eyes sharpened and glared at the interrogation room door. “I get it. Morty is trying to rile me up.”

“Your reactions give him power.” Jason confirmed.

Konoko sighed in resignation. “I was afraid of that. Calvin? Could you finish questioning that bastard? You always had better control over your temper than I do.”

Calvin nodded quickly. “Sure. I’ll see what I can do.” The younger brother turned to enter the room, only to pause in surprise when his coffee was returned to his hand. He turned to Jason and was met with his older brother’s serious silver eyes.

“Careful Bro. Morty knows you. He knows what buttons to push.” Jason warned in a quiet tone. Calvin nodded respectfully to his elder brother, took one long sip from his coffee, gave it back to Jason, and entered the interrogation room.

The pug faced man glanced up when he heard the door open. When Morty saw that only Calvin was coming in, a sneer crossed his ugly face. “Aw! Did the widdle Princess hafta go home and cry to Daddy? That’s so sad!”

Calvin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Morty. Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘Silence is Golden?’”

Morty let out a snort. “Yeah. And I also hears that traitors go to ninth circle of hell. And that’s where yer goin.”

The younger brother raised an eyebrow as he approached the table. “Traitors huh? Considering your history with previous gang leaders, haven’t you gotten the two of us mixed up for that one?” Calvin rested his hands on his chair but didn’t bother to sit in it. It was time to let his height do the intimidation.

“They betrayed me first!” Morty roared, slamming his hands on the table. “They gots what they deserve! Now as for yer!” 

The pug faced man pointed a bony finger at Calvin’s face. “Yer started out in the same boat as the rest of us! Parents killed by the UESC! Yer parents’ property seized by the government to pay for CRIST repairs and food! Left to die on the streets! And yer would have died too if it weren’t for that smart ass yer call brother! Yer were a scrawny weakling that was sick too much.”

“I’m sorry but what is the point of this again?” Calvin interrupted testily.

“My point?” Morty laughed unpleasantly. “My point is that the only reason yer so damn tall and proud is because yer a dog to the military! The same military that made yer a street rat those years ago!” Morty sat back in his seat proudly. “Sure! I might run when I sees the wind blowing the wrong way. Sure I sells myself to different people. But at least I have class.”

Morty tipped his head downward as he delivered the killing blow. “I’ll never whore myself to the killers of my parents!”

A horrible screeching sound filled the room. Both Morty and Calvin froze at the strange noise and looked about the empty space in surprised bewilderment. It was only when Morty glanced across the table and saw the state of Calvin’s hands, did the little pug faced man felt truly scared for his life. Pale and shaking he pointed at Calvin with a nervous laugh. “Heh. Heh. Heh. Guess yer really grew stronger…”

Calvin blinked in confusion over Morty’s words and looked down at where the man was pointing. The steel chair he was holding onto… It was built to be very sturdy. Handcuffed criminals would be attached to these chairs and could never free themselves from it. Calvin had his hands resting lightly on the back of this chair earlier, but now the back was crumpled up into a ball like it was a piece of paper.

The younger brother pulled his hands away from the mess of metal and looked at the appendages in stunned surprise. There was no blood or bruising. He made a fist and marveled over the fact that his hand didn’t hurt. Calvin looked up from his uninjured fist and saw that Morty was sweating buckets in his seat.

Taking a deep breath, Calvin began to speak in a low calm voice. “Morty, you will be charged for obtaining and selling the following narcotics, stimulants, and hallucinogens we found on your person. As we said before, these same drugs seem to go missing in the subway clinic under the Dust Palace.”

Calvin waved his hand when Morty opened his mouth to protest. “The only drug that you should be concerned about is the Razupenem. Granted, we didn’t find it on you, but this illegal drug can be easily sold to your lackeys between now and in the time we found you in the clinic. The jury will be informed of your previous crimes and will see how everything lines up neatly.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? I don’t know no Razupenem.” Morty snarled.

“I didn’t know anything about it earlier when I saw that it was missing.” Calvin admitted. “But it is antibacterial drug that is so strong that it will not only kill the disease but also the healthy cells all around the area. Similar to pouring acid into an infected wound. This drug is banned in the Sol System but you stole it regardless.”

The dirty blond shook his head in remorse. “As you said before, the jury will probably send you on your way with nothing more than a smack on the wrists for stealing the narcotics, stimulants, and hallucinogens. Mars has too many problems to care about imprisoning you for this. But…” 

Calvin glared down at Morty. “The Razupenem is a problem. It can be used a biological weapon. Stealing it will be worth, not jail time, but prison time in the asteroids. You’ll probably get a light sentence, twenty years of mining labor at least and then you can try for parole.”

“Twenty years?” cried Morty.

“It’s a shame really.” Calvin continued. “If you were willing to talk to us, we may have worked out a deal. But… As you said. You ain’t saying nothing.” Calvin turned and walked away from the destroyed chair. “Goodbye Morty.”

“Wait! Wait!!!”

Calvin didn’t pause or turn around. He was nearing the door.

“I didn’t steal the Razupenem. But I know who did!”

Calvin’s hand landed on the door pad, but he didn’t activate it to open.

“It was that weird guy from the Icarus Asteroid! He was yellin at the nurses for some drug called Filgras-something but the clinic didn’t have any. So he started wanting Razupenem instead! He only shut up when that creepy Clovis Bray worker appeared.” Morty was babbling at high speed at this point. Calvin could only hope that Leela and Spooks was recording this properly.

The Security Officer turned around to glare at Morty. “What Clovis Bray worker? What did they look like?”

“The fuck I know!” Morty whined. “I was trying to not be seen myself! But they knew each other. Were all buddy buddy and shit.”

Calvin regarded Morty carefully. Just how much of that was truth, and how much was lies? Granted, Morty will say anything to save his own skin. But… the mention of a Clovis Bray worker… Could this be the lead they need to find the MIDA mole? The Security Officer considered his options carefully and then pulled out a Tacpad. Calvin approached the table and slid the glowing device towards a stunned Morty. 

“Type down everything you just said and sign it.” The dirty blond ordered firmly. “If your story holds weight, we’ll let you go. But if you lie…”

Calvin paused and looked Morty in the eye. “I will find you.”

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The first thing Calvin did when he exited the interrogation room was snatch up the cup of coffee that was sitting in Jason’s hands and down it all in one gulp. The drink was cold and very bitter at this point. It matched Calvin’s mood perfectly.

“Hey… Bro? You okay?” Jason asked worriedly. “I’ll go beat the shit out of him.”

The younger brother flexed his hands carefully. “Doesn’t even hurt. I think something was wrong with the chair though.”

“Well, they are the chairs meant for us, not the prisoners. So they are probably made out of aluminum or something.” Konoko replied weakly. The Asian hated to admit it, but that little stunt worried her as well. Her partner never showed that kind of strength when he was sparing with her…

Calvin let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. It was time they got to business. “Please tell me you recorded everything that rat bastard said. That you got the same gut feeling I felt when he mentioned the Clovis Bray worker.”

Konoko nodded eagerly. “You believe that might lead to our mole?”

“Mole?” Jason interrupted. Both Konoko and Calvin paused and didn’t look at Jason. Their faces were kept carefully blank. Despite their actions, Jason could read through them as easily as a children’s book. “Oh… Special spy stuff huh? That’s okay. I won’t ask anymore about it.”

Calvin relaxed. “Thank you Brother.”

“But I will answer your first question.” Jason continued eagerly. “You have four A.I. recordings of what happened in there! So everyone knows what Morty confessed to!”

“Four?” Calvin glanced at Konoko in confusion. “I thought only Leela and Spooks were involved in this?”

“Well, Leela isn’t going to be on Mars forever Bro.” Jason lectured in disappointment. “Don’t tell me you forgot who originally recorded everything for UESC Security Division and will still be kicking around after the Marathon leaves.” Jason used his thumb to point at the interrogation observation room.

“Oh… VIC! I forgot about him.” Konoko noted in amusement.

“Huh… And the fourth?” Calvin asked.

Jason shakes his head. “Bro… Who opens the doors for you?”

Calvin winced. “Oh! Right! Sorry Durandal.”

“That is alright Mr. Revenant. We may be able to finish ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ today. Yes?” asked a low mechanical voice from the door’s terminal.

“‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?’” Konoko looked at Calvin in amusement.

“What? It’s a classic. And Durandal likes hearing these stories.” The younger brother tried to defend himself.

Konoko gave the dirty blond a light punch on the shoulder. “You’re such a nerd.” She turned to walk away. There was research to do on finding their illusive MIDA mole.

Calvin lingered behind, staring quietly at the empty coffee cup. “Brother… Am I a traitor?”

“Shit. Bro. Course you’re not.” Jason answered immediately. “You’re a good kid. You were a good kid before you met me. That has to come from somewhere. And if your parents were anything like you, then they were good people who would have wanted what was best for you.”

Calvin looked away. “I don’t remember them. I don’t…” The dirty blond shakily took a breath. “I think of Doctor Phineus as my father more than anything else.”

Jason rubbed the back of his neck in resignation. “Yeah… That’s my fault. If anything, I’m the traitor. I’m the one who ran away when my dad… Well, I chose the life of a street rat. I chose that! And when I met you, I chose you too. Because I’m a selfish bastard like that. And when you got too sick for me to help you… I chose to ignore every crime the UESC committed to the Martian people and begged a UESC doctor to fix you.” 

Jason shrugged his shoulders. “You know me, stopped believing in the heaven and hell a long time ago. But if there is a hell, I’m gonna go there. No point in denying it. But you…” The elder brother looked solemnly up at the younger. “You’re the only good thing I’ve ever had in my life for the longest time. And your parents would be proud of you if they saw you right now.”

Calvin couldn’t say anything. It was too hard to breathe at this point let alone speak. Silver eyes shining brightly, he opened his arms in a silent request. Jason quickly stepped forward and hugged him. Feeling his brother's hands pound gently on his back, Calvin felt well enough to gasp for air before squeezing his eyes shut.

The two brothers continued to hug for sometime before either of them felt well enough to let go. As they slowly walked away, a lone A.I. sat quietly at the door terminal reviewing everything that Jason Revenant said. And wondered… if his creator would be proud of him too?


	12. Duck Tape is Silver (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you all are getting a lot of candy!
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A small pinched faced woman worked at the receptionist desk on the upper floors of the Dust Palace. Her job was never an easy one. 

Known for his unreasonable hatred of maps, Clovis Bray designed his buildings to reflect his… unique quirks. Because of this, many business officials that come visiting to the Dust Palace often find themselves lost or confused while exploring the vast hallways and staircases.

The receptionist was used to dealing with angry business tycoons that believed Clovis Bray was making a fool of them. She was used to blustering UESC soldiers marching up and down the stairways, looking for the right floor with hopeless determination. And most important of all, she was used to blubbering Earth Politicians who were eager to babble their entire life’s story to her while asking for directions.

What the receptionist was ‘not’ used to, was hearing the static crackle energy of a transmat right before the elevators. She blinked slowly and her pinched face almost expressed an emotion as she witnessed the strange new arrival.

Old greased stained clothes that showed signs of wear and tear, a box of tools meant for physical labor, and filthy callused hands of a lowlife worker. Obviously a person not meant to be seen on the upper floors of the Dust Palace. But… the owner of such of an unkept appearance was ridiculously tall and well fed. An Earthborn. 

For a brief moment she almost hit the security button that was hidden discreetly underneath her desk, but the newcomer quickly flashed their employee badge at the receptionist. The pinched faced women raised an eyebrow at the oddity but then she mentally shrugged and went back to work on her computer. A lost engineer was not her problem.

And boy… Was Eddings lost. She glanced to her right to see the stairs leading up and then looked to her left to see the stairs leading downwards. There were elevators behind her and a receptionist desk in front of her. 

For a brief moment, Eddings peered around in confusion before hitting the small black communicator in her ear. “Uh… Durandal? I think there was a glitch in that transmat. I’m in-between floors twenty seven and twenty six.” 

She needed to work on floor twenty today instead of hanger ninety six. Apparently some important official from Earth was doing a presentation on new technology that they have just invented. Of course Clovis Bray, being the greedy bastard that he is, demanded to see how the new invention would work with his corporation’s own machinery. But in order to make this presentation (that was programmed with completely different computer language) work, they needed an engineer to physically piece the two together. That was Eddings job today. Now she just had to get to floor twenty.

“There was no error.” The A.I. answered in her earpiece. “I’m afraid that I am unable to trasmat you to floor twenty, due to security reasons. You will have to travel the rest of the way by stairs and elevator.”

The girl made a face. “Elevator? You sure? No way out of it?”

“Don’t even think about it.” Came the testy response.

“Alright, alright. I’m just saying…” Eddings turned around to look at the elevators with a grimace. “It’s okay to think outside of the box.”

“The box exists for a reason and you are staring at the wrong elevators. I need you to go down the stairs to your right.”

“Down the stairs. Gotcha!” Eddings gave a little wave to the receptionist behind her before heading off. The stairs were a standard industrial grey in color, very bland but sturdy. Eddings flew down the steps with ease before stopping in front of a set of doors. Before she could even flash her associate’s badge at the scanner, Durandal had released the locks to the doors. She smiled gratefully up at the cameras before entering the next room. And what she saw there, made her stop dead in her tracks.

In the past few months that Eddings had been working for Clovis Bray, the girl has experienced a very common décor around the building. Steel walls, steel floors, steel ceilings, and the nitty gritty of what lay behind those floors, walls, and ceilings. She has never seen anything more grandiose than the wires, cables, servers and cooling fans of her work station. 

She was also used to meeting the hard working variety of humanity during her time of employment. Intense to highly stressed scientists, barking construction workers, gossiping grease monkeys, and stoic UESC soldiers, all made up the majority of the population. Never before has she seen anyone or anything worthy of being considered glamorous other than the computer animated backgrounds one would see in a holo-video.

That is… Until today.

The vast room (can it even be called a room?) swept out before her, shimmering in a rich golden hue. The ceilings were so high up one would need a huge ladder to reach the top. There were elevators here too, but they were tucked away almost hidden within the room’s single pillar. The first main focus was the grand staircase that curved around the arena like the old Victorian ballroom staircases of old. And the second focus was the huge bay windows that proudly displayed the Freehold city’s skyscrapers.

A proper Martian would have cried out in horror at the sight of those easily breakable windows. A proper Martian would have shaken their heads in disgust at the huge waste of space and the frivolity of decorative architecture.

Thankfully Eddings was not a proper Martian. With a huge grin, she rushed down the first arc of the stairway so that she could plant her face right in front of the windows. Not even caring that her breath was steaming up the glass, the girl glanced about the city skyline in wonder. “We’re so high up!” she exclaimed happily as she watched an airborne shuttle make a landing approach above her head.

“You are currently a few floors below Bay two’s offloading dock.” Was that amusement in the A.I.’s voice? Eddings was almost tempted to give Durandal the same grief she gave her Martian cousins whenever they teased her over acting like an Earthborn. But she decided against it. Hell, the whole universe can spit on her Earthborn heritage right now. She was too busy enjoying the view to care.

“So the Cortex is right above me? I thought it was above floor thirty six.” Eddings replied, her eyes drinking in the rarely seen city’s details.

“You forget who designed this building Miss.”

Eddings let out a sigh. “The amazing Clovis Bray made infamous by his hatred of maps and anything else of convenience.”

“Exactly. And to conclude your description of him, he has also designed the elevator’s placement.” There was a slight pause and Eddings knew, deep down in her heart, that the A.I. was teasing her. “To be more precise, he designed the unique location of the elevator you need to take right now.”

Her face twisted in displeasure. She did not like where this conversation was going. “You sure I can’t take the stairs?”

“The Main Archives of floor twenty are in a secure location for scientific testing. It is necessary to keep it isolated from civilians in case of an experiment going awry.” Durandal explained patiently as Eddings pried herself away from the window and wandered dejectedly down the massive staircase.

“Oh? Like the combustible lemons project? I remember Jason telling me about that one.” Eddings adjusted the strap to her tool box so that it would rest on her right shoulder instead of the left one. Martian gravity or not, the tools were always heavy and bounding down the stairs while having them rest on one shoulder was painful.

“Indeed.” Durandal answered quietly while watching her. The A.I. then continued in a more disturbed tone of voice. “Mr. Revenant tried to duplicate the ancient works of the late twentieth century inventor Cave Johnson for a time. Not only did he try to create combustible lemons, he also grew mutant potatoes. Apparently the goal for that project was to try powering a computer with the meager voltage a potato battery produces.”

Eddings stopped as she finally reached the end of the stairs. Unconsciously she adjusted her tool box again so that it would rest against the left shoulder once more. “Let me guess… Didn’t work. Right?”

“Cave Johnson was notorious for creating amazing inventions before their time. However due to the fact hundreds of years has passed since his death and the fact that people like to stretch the truth on his creations, it is obvious that some of his rumored inventions were really nothing more than fantasy stories.” The A.I. sounded slightly miffed on how much data could be considered incomplete or incorrect altogether.

“I guess Clovis Bray really likes people like Cave Johnson, since you know so much about him.” She mused as she looked around. “Where is this secret elevator that I know I’m gonna hate?”

Durandal didn’t even bother to tell the girl that a whole section of Clovis Bray’s science department is set aside for recreating ancient Aperture Science technology. Instead the A.I. regarded the blueprints and redirected Eddings to her new destination. “You’ll need to turn around Miss.”

“Turn around? But wasn’t I supposed to go down the stairs?”

“Look behind the stairs.”

Eddings looked closer and groaned. “Oh… You gotta be kidding me!” There was a secret elevator nestled underneath the grand staircase.

“I’m sorry Miss.” He didn’t sound sorry at all.

With a slight grumble, the girl made her way underneath the staircase and regarded the small elevator before her. Without prompting, Durandal opened the doors to reveal a tiny room that was, at least, clean. Eddings looked at the death trap and then turned her face upwards to the cameras. She made sure her face looked absolutely pitiful. “Durandal…”

“No.”

“I just want to see what the inside of the elevator shaft looks like. I’ve repaired elevator shafts before! This shouldn’t be a problem!” She insisted, speaking rapidly as if her quick words would have a affect on a A.I..

“I believe I know you well enough Miss. You will try to climb down regardless of the lack of adequate safety equipment inside the shaft. May I remind you that such a feat will only aggravate your injuries?” Durandal made sure that his voice sounded firm and calm. But within his core, he was panicking. 

He had no authority over her and one wrong word or phrase could convince her to log a complaint of his behavior to Strauss. So far neither Eddings nor the Revenant brothers ever showed signs of anger whenever Durandal was frank with them. In fact, all three humans seemed to encourage him when the A.I. ever showed what they called, ‘sass.’ But the fear was still there. The fear of failing, of being abandoned, and the fear of being purged all sat heavily within his core.

Eddings, completely oblivious of his plight, continued to argue with Durandal. “It’s been months since I fell down the stairs! I’m fine! Look, I can rotate both my right wrist and my right shoulder without even a twinge of pain.” She demonstrated proudly before the camera’s lens.

“Then why are you unable to hold the weight of the tool box on your right shoulder for long periods of time?” The A.I. questioned. It did not escape his notice that she was still favoring those sore spots.

The young engineer paused, glanced at her tool box, and made a face at the awful truth. “You’re right. Sorry Durandal.”

“That has to be the most sensible thing you’ve ever said.” Eddings jumped at the sound of the unknown male voice. She whirled around to see a tall well dressed Earthborn man staring down at her. Even though she was aware of the splendor around her, it still was a shock to see the expensive Armani Tuxedo and gold Rolex watch before her face.

It didn’t help that the man was also handsome to boot.

“I’m… uh… Engineering! I’m a engineer! I fix stuff.” Good grief, why was her voice getting high-pitched? Eddings never had a good history of acting cool around cute men. Another thing her cousins would tease her about back at her mother’s farm. She self-consciously ran a hand through her hair and internally winced when she realized the state of her clothing and lack of makeup. 

“Engineering huh? Good. That means we’re working together today.” The tall man swept past her like a graceful feline. Before Eddings could even blink, the newcomer pressed a steel briefcase into her arms. “Hold this please.” He asked.

“Uh… Okay!” She yelped awkwardly as she tried not to fumble or drop the new item. When she finally felt in control of her hands, Eddings looked up to see the well dressed Earthborn was entering a small room.

Feeling her eyes on him he turned around with a smirk. “Well? Are you coming or not?”

Thankfully some part of Eddings’ brain managed to wake up enough to remind her that answering that particular question would sound sexually horrible. She wisely kept her mouth shut and sent a bewildered look up at the cameras. Sadly, Durandal remained silent to her plight. With no other options, she followed, only to realize too late that she had willingly entered the death trap elevator.

Before her hyperactive mind could react to the new calamity, a sharp elbow jabbed her in the side. “So? What do you make of it?” asked the Earthborn.

It? Oh! The steel briefcase that she was holding. Eddings had glanced at it briefly but the girl didn’t understand what was really in her grasp. Now, being fully inspected, she realized that the briefcase wasn’t really a briefcase at all. “No way!” she breathed in amazement. “The newest Kaiba Corporation laptop! This is incredible!”

She had read all the articles about this famous computer, drooled over the little details that went into its hard drive and CPU, and she was well aware of the laptop’s price range. With a growing sense of horror, Eddings realized that she was holding something that was worth more money than she could ever hope to earn in an honest paycheck.

And she was never good with nice things. Breaking her mother’s unicorn statues, taking her dad’s watches apart just to see how they worked, and worst of all trying to ice skate in Alaska when it was only early fall. If the broken arm and near drowning experience ever taught Eddings anything, it was that she was not to be trusted with important valuables.

“Oh shit… Uh… Sir? I don’t think I should be holding this!” She called out worriedly, not even realizing that the elevator had stopped and the door was opening. “I might break it.”

The tall man let out a snort as he walked out the door. “Please… As if I would give Clovis Bray the satisfaction of making something that fragile. Today… I’m going to make the old man sweat. And you Miss Engineer…” He turned to smirk at her. “Are going to help me set up my presentation.”

A dramatic turn of the heel, a swish of the tuxedo’s fabric, and he was gone. Eddings watched him leave with a stunned look on her face. After a long moment of silence, a static crackle echoed in her ear. “Miss? Are you still functioning?” asked Durandal in a worried tone.

“Y…Yeah…” She wobbled a bit, steadied herself, and walked quickly out of the elevator. “I think I just talked to the richest man on planet Earth.” she murmured in disbelief.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> The best part about this chapter and the next chapter is that, I now have a valid excuse to still play Destiny 1. In particular Destiny 1’s Rise of Iron’s level, “Download Complete.”


	13. Duck Tape is Silver (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last. Chapter 12 is finally done. A lot of research was done for this and I’ll give out some links down below if anyone is a nerd like me and enjoys magnets…
> 
> In the meantime I want to wish everyone a wonderful winter holiday! May the next year bring us all good luck!
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The steel floor vibrated heavily with each marching footstep. The troop of Security Officers paraded onto floor twenty with military like precision. Calvin Revenant smiled in amusement as their thunderous entrance caused the scientists to scatter like frightened birds. 

Floor twenty was a huge laboratory filled with three towers dedicated for computer terminals. But that was just the stage. The rest of the floor was contained extra working stations that lined the walls discreetly and the main platform was clearly meant for outsiders to view what the scientists were doing. A laboratory meant for shock and awe, and today, the President of Kaiba Corporation was here to impress old Clovis Bray himself.

With a clang of feet, the troop of Security Officers came to an abrupt halt. Calvin stood at parade rest with among the others. Their duty today was to protect the most important man in Mars.

With a hiss, the elevator door opened and Clovis Bray entered floor twenty with a hearty laugh. Larger than life, the big man had a meaty hand wrapped around Bernhard Strauss’ shoulder in a friendly manner. However if one was to look at Strauss’ face, they could tell that the scientist was far from happy about being shepherd into the room.

“Come now Bernhard. This is a momentous occasion! Surely your work can wait a little while.” Clovis Bray announced with a joyful boom. The President raised his free hand and waved it grandly about the laboratory indicating all the scientists and Security Officers that were now standing at attention. 

“A marvelous joining of children! The children dreamt up by the minds of Kaiba Corporation, and of those from Clovis Bray! What new technology, what new grandchildren will be born this day?” The President let out another hearty laugh before playfully swatting Strauss’ shoulder. “Let us see!”

Strauss staggered forth a bit from the force of Bray’s push. The scientist primly straitened his lab coat and set his glasses even. “If you say so sir.” He answered a bit snidely.

Bray only chuckled and let the fuming scientist go to one of the terminals. Calvin, being at attention, could not shake his head in exasperation although he was definitely doing so within his mind. If Clovis Bray had one major flaw, it was the fact he looked at all his employees as collaborators and he tended to be very forgiving if his fellow collaborators had a bit of lip. The Security Officer was certain that if Bernhard Strauss worked for another company like Kaiba Corp, he would be fired for showing such attitude.

And speaking of Kaiba Corp, the President of said corporation was standing up from where he was working and approaching Clovis Bray now. “Mister President.” The tall dark haired man said formally with a slight bow. “It is an honor to work with you in your facility today.”

“President Kaiba.” Bray announced in a tone people generally used when they’re salivating over a delicious meal. “I hardly speak for myself when I say, ‘Welcome to Freehold!’ We are all eager to see what you have to show us today. Is the setup nearly finished?”

The slender Earthborn gave a sharp nod. “It is done. Assembly is complete and right now your engineer is using an old Unix based Network File System to allow my technology to communicate with your terminals.” President Kaiba gave a small nod of respect to the area he was working at earlier. 

Calvin gave a quick glance over in the direction that President Kaiba indicated and saw a familiar form sitting near a terminal. A nest of wires, exposed panels, and a huge laptop rested at her feet. Eddings’ attention was focused on the screen of the laptop at first. But then her head tilted, as if she was listening to someone, and she glanced over to where Calvin was standing at attention. Her smile and little wave made this job ten times better, even if he couldn’t smile or wave back.

Sadly Calvin had to refocus his attention as the lights dimmed within the laboratory and President Kaiba’s presentation came into focus. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for coming. As we all know, when mankind first invented the computer in the twentieth century, our use of technology was going to change forever.” President Kaiba gave a small nod to the three massive terminals that made up the ground floor of the room. All computers flickered on and the Kaiba Corporation logo appeared on all the screens.

“As humanity grew, so did our technology. We wished to forge our own destiny, and by doing so, we found new mediums to express ourselves.” One by one, the computer screens flickered off. The Earthborn continued his speech. “We discovered how to use light itself as a powerful tool.” A few motes of light came from the laptop before it flared into a huge hologram of a massive white dragon. Despite its dramatic entrance, nobody was too bothered by the beast. They have all seen Kaiba Corp’s mascot before.

The President nodded at the scientists unimpressed faces. “A common sight now. Holograms are used for our everyday entertainment. They are also used to create training simulations for our military, doctors, pilots, and countless students around the world. But!” The Earthborn held up his hand dramatically. The hologram of a dragon dissolved into countless lines of code floating in the air.

“But… This illusion of light is only as real as the person who knows how to write the code.” President Kaiba finished solemnly. “The common everyday man cannot change the ending of a holovideo. Nor could an aspiring author shape his thoughts into a visible shape. The hologram is limited to a privilege few… Until today.”

The lines of holographic code transformed into geometric shapes in various colors and sizes. President Kaiba walked up to one of the shapes, a sphere that was bluish/white in color, and seamlessly plucked it out of the air. “Everyone, may I give you ‘Solid Vision’ holograms that will change in the palms of your hands even if you don’t know how to write the code.”

His hands worked the hologram, twisting it, shaping it, as if the light was a rubber balloon to be molded into a toy dog. When the President was finished, a crude but recognizable dragon was sitting in the palm of his hand. With a victorious smirk, he held out his little creation out for everyone to see. When several of the scientists still looked skeptical, President Kaiba roughly plucked a two other holograms, a cube and a pyramid, and tossed the little motes of light towards the startled men.

Calvin looks on in undisguised curiosity as the two scientists at first mishandle the intangible holograms, causing the items in question to slip through their fingers. Then with a huff of frustration, one of the scientists pinched the tip of his pyramid and yanked upwards. The hologram accommodated his action and stretched up like the tip of a telescope.

Quiet murmurs of surprise and awe were heard around the laboratory. The other scientist, looking at his peer’s handiwork with jealousy, brought both of his hands together over his hologram cube. The loud smack of his clapping hands got everyone’s attention. The team of Security Officers in general all stiffened at the sound but relaxed at the sight of a flattened hologram. The light wafted through his fingertips making his clasped hands look like fleshy pancakes.

President Kaiba walked up to the scientist with an amused air. He extracted the squished cube away and held its mangled form up for all the room to see. “Holograms that can be manipulated by your bare hands.” The President announced solemnly. “Never again will the need to understand computer code, overshadow the desire to create.”

He stalked back and forth the huge laboratory, his dark Armani Tux stood out among the bleached walls and pale terminals. “Imagine… Artists creating large 3D sculptures with the use of their hands alone. Movie directors making the scenes of their holovideos perfect by the twitch of their fingers. I give you… A hologram that anyone can use!”

A wave of applause broke out on floor twenty. It was obvious that every scientist in the room was bursting with curiosity and eagerness to get a closer look that the Kaiba Corp laptop that was responsible for creating this new holographic feature. President Clovis Bray came forth to shake Kaiba’s hand. “Well done sir! Very well done! I’m ashamed to say that your work is so perfected, I don’t know how our technologies will aide you any further!” Clovis Bray boomed cheerfully.

President Kaiba’s smile was all teeth at Bray’s admission. Calvin couldn’t help but feel that Kaiba wanted old Bray to be taken down a notch. The tall Earthborn gave a slight nod at Clovis Bray and murmured, “As I said before, these holograms can be used by anyone. And that includes immortal A.I.s that are not programmed to use holograms in the first place.”

A stillness came over the room over those quiet words. President Kaiba smirked. “It is no secret to those who work for the military that you have in your possession two of the most powerful A.I.s to exist since Traxus IV. Smart A.I.s that can live over seven years, Smart A.I.s that will be the spearhead of Marathon’s journey, how can anyone possibly overlook the existence of such priceless treasures?”

Clovis Bray chuckled. It was not a nice sound. Calvin could feel the slight shift from the rest of the Security Officers in the room. Witnessing a power play among two business giants was making the hair stand up at the nape of his neck. The dirty blond turned his attention over towards Eddings to see how she was faring. Curiously enough, she wasn’t even looking at the approaching storm. Instead, she was staring at one of the terminals while a hand rested on her right ear, as if she was listing to a voice only she could hear. Calvin looked at the scene with confusion before returning his gaze back to the presidents.

“Well I do applaud the hard work your people must have gone through to get inside information about my Corporation’s A.I.s.” Clovis Bray announced slowly and carefully. “I must remind you that the UESC also has a hand in their creation. Any further data about their existence and their unique functionality is considered classified.”

“Of course.” Kaiba’s bow of apology was a bit too mocking in Calvin’s opinion. “I will refrain from any further observations about Charlemagne’s Vault. But my curiosity is not abated. Can your A.I.s interact with my new holographic technology?”

A tense moment passed before Clovis Bray shook his head in rueful amusement. “You are a persistent bastard. No wonder your old man didn’t have any hair left when he gave you the keys to his Corporation.” Kaiba stiffened at the mention of his father, but did not rise to the bait, much to Bray’s disappointment. “Very well. Leela is in charge of the Marathon’s future Security team and Tycho is in charge of the entire science division on the Marathon. It would be foolish to believe neither of these A.I.s are not present in this room right now.” Clovis Bray finished darkly while looking at both the Security Officers and the Scientists in question.

“Affirmative Mr. President. All three A.I.s that are programmed to be onboard the Marathon are monitoring the situation here.” Leela’s calm soothing voice echoed about the laboratory.

President Kaiba blinked. “Three A.I.s?”

Calvin and several other Security Officers turned their heads sharply when a quick motion caught their attention. There was no threat however. Bernhard Strauss had jumped out of his chair and was glaring thunderously at one of the terminals. Clearly something had upset the scientist horribly. Calvin couldn’t figure out what it was but since Bernhard wasn’t holding a weapon, or even engaging in whatever conflict the two President’s playing at, Calvin couldn’t step in.

“Very well Leela. You have the floor.” President Clovis Bray swept out his arm towards the Kaiba Corporation laptop. “Let us see how two different technologies can work together.”

At first nothing happened. Then… A pale blue light flickered through the laptop’s projectors and illuminated the room with a soothing glow. Ribbons of blue rippled through the air like winding rivers. Twisting and shaping themselves, the blue light was getting darker and more purposeful in its metamorphosis. And then, she was there. Solid and real, Leela stood regally among the stunned scientists within the room. Calvin had to smile a little at her features. It was obvious that she used her creator, Dominick I. Plackar, to base her appearance off of. She had his long limbs and short but artfully styled hair. But she had made some changes as well starting off smoothing her features down instead of inheriting Dominick’s sharp angles.

Before anyone was given a chance to react to Leela’s stunning beauty, a shimmering red began to grow beside her. A swirling maelstrom of ruby intensity, motes of light sparked and spluttered like fireworks before Tycho finalized his form. He stood a few inches shorter than her, a more compact body compared to her slender frame.

It was not lost on anyone that Tycho had also copied his appearance from his creator. Estasia Orestes unmistakable round face glanced around the room as if Tycho was genuinely physically there, looking at all the scientists for the first time. 

It started with only a single person clapping, but it was enough to feed the flames of overwhelming applause. The scientists were all but shouting their questions and theories at President Kaiba in their eagerness to understand how the new holographic technology worked. The man stood proudly in their midst but said nothing until the room once again fell silent. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you.” President Kaiba began quietly. “Words can not describe the pleasure I feel when the great minds of Clovis Bray approve of my companies’ hard work. But… Our little test isn’t finished yet.” The tall Earthborn looked curiously at Leela’s new holographic avatar. “You said there were three A.I.s on the Marathon. Did you not? Can the third one present themselves as well?”

“Hardly an A.I.” a new voice spoke up. Calvin and the others glanced over to where Bernhard Strauss was once again standing up from his terminal. “The machine is almost a hundred years old, an antique door opener for the ship. It is hardly worth testing.”

President Kaiba raised an eyebrow at Strauss’ location. “A door opener huh?” A slow smile grew on the Earthborn’s face. The tall man threw a glance over at Eddings’ position. The girl had turned bright red, much to Calvin’s bemusement, and was now burying her face into her work… literally. With the air of a smug cat, Kaiba continued. “Following that logic, your A.I. would also monitor the elevators correct?”

“Of course.” Strauss sneers.

“Good!” The President eagerly rubs his hands together in anticipation.

“Good?” The scientist parrots back incredulously.

“Of course!” The Earthborn sweeps across the three main terminals like a lead actor on a stage. When he stops before Strauss’ terminal the room is so deathly silent from the tension that the whisper of sliding Armani cloth could be compared to the slow rumbling of thunder. “When I designed this holographic technology, my sole desire was to make this an object ANYONE could play with. Something to give people inspiration, dreams, and tools to build goals on. If your A.I. is handicapped as you say they are. Then it would honor me greatly to see if a handicapped person can use this technology and prove that ANYONE can operate my holograms to their fullest extent.”

It was a play on the Superego. Calvin could see it from a mile away. Although not unheard of, there were actually very few Martians that suffered from disorders of any kind on the planet. Probably because NASA insisted that only the healthiest of humans were allowed to travel to space hundreds of years ago. Still… Many humans still suffered from such maladies on Earth.

And Kaiba was playing their card right now. And by doing so, he was making Strauss look like an absolute bastard for believing that a lower class A.I. like Durandal couldn’t work the holographic system. Clever. Calvin suppressed a smirk. If only Jason was here to see this. The elder brother would never let Strauss live this down.

“Very well. I will allow the machine to work your holographic marvel… since you seem so intent on considering a computer a person.” Strauss responded in a low voice.

The Earthborn raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Strauss’ tone, but did not reply to the surly scientist. Instead he just gazed back to where the laptop was generating the holograms. Both Leela and Tycho had left earlier and all that was glimmering before President Kaiba was an empty haze of white light. For a long moment, nothing happened. A few of the observers shifted and muttered in impatience but the Earthborn remained calm. Waiting…

A flash of neon green was their only warning. Then the light solidified into a bright green sword that swiftly branched out into dozens of millions of other swords. Calvin could only gape in surprise at the strange image that he saw before him. Other scientists seemed as dismayed at the odd appearance of the A.I.. So many sharp angles and rigid lines… Was this considered healthy?

“Huh. That’s really cool. You look like one of the giant spruce trees from back home.” A lone female voice called out. Not that anyone was paying attention to her. Not when the hologram was shuddering… Jerking… The swords were crossing, twisting, and clashing against each other violently. Interestingly enough, a human shape was forming out of the geometric mess, although it didn’t look quite right in Calvin’s eyes.

The face… The body… Everything was warped and deformed. Forehead too big. Eyes too wide. The lips folding out in a grotesque smile. The feet and the hands were also far too large and detailed compared to the stick-like limbs and body they were attached to. It almost resembled a Picasso painting that was being reflected by a funhouse mirror.

Sadly enough, there were some familiar aspects in Durandal’s avatar. The curve of the nose… The slump of the back and shoulders… Calvin looked at Strauss and saw the same bow in the scientist’s shoulder blades. And the Security Officer knew deep down that if he were to look at a holo-photo of Ursa Simbalzi, the same curved nose would be on that scientist’s face.

This time the response around the room was much different. Where Leela and Tycho got rounds of applause, Durandal was met with disgust and disbelief. Voices of discontent spoke out. Calling on Strauss for badly programming the A.I.. Other voices, in a more worried tone, cried out the fact that Durandal was responsible for life support on the Marathon and this is how the A.I. chooses to represent himself?

Calvin and the other Security Officers readjusted their stances. If the crowd got too ugly, they may have to take action to calm everyone down. Thankfully a new voice spoke up before things got out of hand.

“Well… He doesn’t have access to the internet, nor does he have an accurate visual of humanity since a lot of the security cameras are fished eyed to emphasize certain features. I’m not surprised that his representation of a human is warped. It’s like asking a child who needs glasses to draw a picture of a person. It’s just not gonna come out right.”

The same female voice rang out among the disgruntled murmurs. Thankfully her quiet reasoning actually had an affect on the scientists. The air changed as hypothesis on an A.I.’s capabilities versus their limitations, now started to circulate the laboratory. The hostility in the room lessened and Calvin wanted to smile. He didn’t know how she did it, but Eddings’ voice seemed to have a power swaying other’s opinions.

All except one…

“A child?” Bernhard Strauss sneers from his terminal. “Hmph! I can almost understand such a foolish misconstruction. But it does not matter if an A.I. can understand what it perceives. It does not matter what it chooses to look like or if it can think. This is not what humanity had made computers for.”

The scientist marched to the center of the laboratory. His demeanor, his intellect, and his angered determination overshadowed everyone, even the two business tycoons. Bernhard Strauss placed his hands on the center terminal and began to type furiously at the keyboard as if he was a master pianist playing Sergei Rachmaninoff. “Of course many have forgotten the point of making these machines. After all… Ridicules entertainment such as holograms or cat pictures is much more worthy of our time.”

Durandal’s hologram began to flicker and convulse erratically. Strauss, unaffected by the A.I.’s behavior, continued typing furiously. “The machine is programmed to be user friendly. This of course breeds the animalistic behavior in humans to see the computer as a companion…” Strauss shook his head in contempt. “Such selfish sentimentality gets people killed.”

The A.I. was no longer shaking or jerking. Instead, Durandal’s deformed human holograph was standing rigidly at attention like a soldier. “What shall you have me do with this computer that is over seventy years old…? Hmmm?” Strauss hummed thoughtfully. “Would you like it to sing?”

Durandal began to march in place like a mechanical toy soldier. “You’ve got no strings, comme ci comme ca, your savoire-faire is ooh la la! I’ve got strings, but entre nous, I’d cut my strings for you.” The A.I. sang in a high pitched voice.

It started slowly… a chuckle here, a snicker there. Mocking laughter was slowly filling the room. Strauss continued conversing with his amused audience. “What shall we have it do next? Be poisoned by a malfunctioning food processor?” Durandal’s singing abruptly halted as the A.I. began to choke on invisible food.

The laughter quieted but Strauss continued. “Oh I know! Since we wasted so much processing power on making the A.I. look beautiful, why don’t we allow the oxygen tanks get dumped into space?” Durandal’s hologram crumpled to the unseen floor as the A.I. desperately struggled for air. 

Calvin clenched his hands into fists. He wanted to speak out, to stop this. But he didn’t own the A.I.. He turned his gaze helplessly to Clovis Bray and Kaiba. The two Presidents watched the scene with a solemn silent air. Calvin was certain there was distaste on their features, but at the same time neither of the business tycoons was going to stop this. 

The Security Officer glanced at Eddings last. He knew that the girl had a friendship with the A.I.. This had to be killing her. But… Calvin blinked and then readjusted his stance. The young woman was busy digging out a huge metal disc out of her tool chest as well as a roll of… duck tape? Calvin narrowed his eyes. She was up to something… It was probably for the best if he was prepared for the worst.

Bernhard Strauss, oblivious of anything other than his raving, continued his mad typing at the terminal. “Of course…” The scientist hissed with vindictive glee. “Let’s not forget how important it is to have an aged computer interact with the internet. The information an A.I. could receive from such a source is critical for its development. For example, what would happen if a hacker were to invade this A.I. just as it was leaving Mars’ orbit? Imagine the chaos it would bring to such a computer that controls doors.”

The final series of holograms almost made Calvin cry out in rage. Durandal, still choking on air, was struggling franticly against a hologram of a massive door. The monstrosity was taking up the entire holographic ceiling and was slowly coming down upon the doomed A.I.. For one sickening moment, Calvin thought for sure that the A.I. was going to be crushed.

Then… As one… Every single computer terminal in the entire laboratory went out as if someone just switched off the lights.

Pandemonium reigned.

The Security Officers encircled Clovis Bray unthinkingly. The President’s safety was their top priority. All over the room scientists were clamoring as they rushed to their terminals. Despite the noise and confusion, President Kaiba remained calm as he marched over to his laptop and examined the screen. Calvin watched him from his post near Clovis Bray. It appeared that the Kaiba Corp laptop was unaffected by unexpected disaster. The Earthborn brushed some dust off the screen before folding the laptop up in a calm professional manner. His actions did not go unnoticed by the other panicking Martian scientists.

“What have you done?” snarled Bernhard Strauss. The smaller scientist all but quivered in rage as he marched towards the tall Earthborn. “Was it your intention to sabotage us?”

“Silence Bernhard!” Clovis Bray’s voice echoed throughout the laboratory. With a shove that surprised even Calvin, President Bray bulldozed his way through the Security Officers and walked over to where Kaiba and Strauss stood. “I’m sure that there is a reasonable explanation for this?”

“The servers are down sir!” One of the scientists exclaimed from their terminal. “We can not interact with the outside network.”

“Impossible. Those severs are meant to work at all times with redundant systems, back up hard drives and multiple power sources.” snapped another scientist. “How can they just stop working?”

“Um sirs?”

The men stopped arguing to glare at the one single engineer in the room. Calvin winced as Eddings hesitantly addressed the men that were so much more powerful than her in terms of money, influence, and intellect. “If I may… The servers can crash due to Mars’ unique environment.”

“Unique environment?” Strauss hissed. “Spoken like a true Earthborn.”

Eddings didn’t respond to the slur. Instead she wandered back to where she was working earlier and placed her hand against one of the massive rectangle boxes that littered the showroom floor. Calvin wasn’t sure what the machinery did, but he was certain that it was important. And something was seriously wrong with it considering the way Eddings flinched away from touching it.

“The Servers are too hot Sir.” She reported to Clovis Bray. “I fear that with using the new holographic technology, as well as having all three A.I.s interact with it, finally killed the last working fan in here.” Eddings pulled on her workers gloves and began to pry the panel cover off the box.

When it was clear that her strength was not enough to budge the metal, President Kaiba gave a snort, pulled on a pair of gloves as well, and wandered over to aide her with the job. “Well?” The Earthborn challenged the uncertain Martian scientists. “Do you call yourselves men?”

That insult seemed to do the trick. A handful of scientists grabbed tools and took position around the massive overheated machine. As one, they all tugged on the panel and with a loud metallic screech, it finally gave away to reveal the machinery within.

A long silence filled the room as everyone saw what was inside.

“So… That’s what she meant by unique Martian environment.” Kaiba murmured amusedly. It was obvious that the Earthborn was enjoying this way too much.

Rust. Bright red rust. It was everywhere on Mars. The massive dust storms that Mars was so famous for, carried that rust on its winds and buried it into every crevice in existence. And here in the heart of Clovis Bray’s skyscraper, the Dust Palace itself, that same bright red iron rust was finding its way into the machinery.

Inside the server, Calvin could see that the hard drives were coated with the stuff. But that was not the worst part. Just like Eddings said, the fans had ceased to function. So heavily caked were they with the powder, the only thing they could do was twitch slightly in some vain attempt to keep working.

Clovis Bray let out a sigh in frustrated disbelief. “And here I thought my money was actually paying for something.” The President turned and glared at the ogling scientists. “Well?” He roared at them. “The problem is not going to fix itself just because you’re looking at it!”

With yelps of fear, the scientists scattered to get the cleaning supplies. All except one.

“Horribly convenient. That last fan just had to give out right now.” Strauss did not bother to hide his sarcasm as he glared at President Kaiba and Eddings.

“Bernhard… Enough… You saw for yourself that this panel has not been opened for many years and needed the help of several men to budge.” Clovis Bray intercepted tiredly. “Come. You have made your point earlier. Your work is far more important to you than a frivolous form of entertainment.” With a massive hand on Strauss’ back, the President of Clovis Bray gently herded the surly scientist away from the Earthborns.

Calvin watched them leave with a small smile. Finally free from his duty, the Security Officer hurried over to where Eddings and Kaiba stood. He got there just in time to hear the President mutter quietly, “So how long are you going to wait before taking that magnet off the server?”

“Magnet?” Calvin questioned in confusion.

Kaiba stiffened and turned to glare at the Security Officer. Thankfully Eddings intervened.

“Calvin's a friend and he cares for Durandal too.” She reassured the President. Then, with a impish smile, she beckoned Calvin to follow her to the back of the massive rectangular server. 

“See this?” she asked while pointing out a huge six inched disk that appeared stuck to the server. The thing was swaddled in layers of duck tape that curved off the disk to make a thick silver rope. She grasped the duck tape rope and pulled the disk a slither of an inch away from the center of the server. With a grin she turned to Calvin. “It’s a neodymium magnet. One of the strongest magnets you can own. Pretty much stops all machinery dead if you attached this magnet to it.”

The Security Officer stared at the magnet for a long slow moment. He reached out and gave the duck tape a slight tug, only to realize that the magnet was stuck fast to the metal. With a grunt, he pulled hard, and the disk slide a full seven inches before he had to stop. That thing was truly powerful! Calvin turned back to the girl. “So the Martian rust?”

“Oh the server would have failed eventually. I see this happen all the time since I started this job of repairing everything around here.” Eddings told him flippantly. “The magnet just helped things along.”

“Froze the fans in place, allowed the hard drives to over heat, and boom!” Kaiba smirked victoriously. “This laboratory can no longer interact with the internet or communicate with the three A.I.s.”

Calvin let out a sigh of relief. “So Durandal is safe?”

“Yeah…” Eddings glared at the server. It was a strange thing to see on the usually cheerful girl. “I always wondered why Durandal seemed so afraid of that bastard… Now I know.”

His hands involuntarily clenched into fists again. Calvin took a long breath before he calmed and centered himself once more. Nothing good would be gained by punching people he didn’t like… At least, that’s what Calvin kept telling himself. 

The Security Officer looked up and found himself slightly wondering about the President of Kaiba Corp. “So… You knew what she was doing the whole time?” Calvin asked.

Kaiba gave a little huff of laughter. “Oh I knew she would do something. I didn’t know what it could be, but I figured she would put a stop to it. After all… Someone doesn’t spend five minutes arguing with a ‘machine’ over the use of an elevator.” The slender Earthborn smiled down at the blushing girl. “Those types of conversations are reserved for good friends and treasured family.”

Eddings shuffled uncomfortably. “I don’t like elevators.” She muttered in a grumpy tone.

“Heh!” The President gracefully pulled open his laptop and examined a small compartment at the bottom of the keyboard. With a flourish, a small storage compartment opened and a thin card slid out. “Take this.” Kaiba handed the card towards a very confused Eddings.

“Um… Thank you.” She accepted it awkwardly. “But what is it?”

“Normally I don’t mooch off of other corporation’s employees.” Kaiba began quietly. “It always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But you… You have ingenuity, creativity, and most important of all, a strong sense of morality.”

President Kaiba reached out and tapped a slender finger on the card. “Should you ever come to Earth, give this card to one of my many faculties. You will always be assured of a promising career at Kaiba Corp.”

Eddings inhaled sharply, her hands gripped the card tighter as if the thing was made out of gold. She brought the item to her chest reverently. “Thank you! Oh! Wow! Thank you so much! I… I…”

Calvin watched the scene before him as if he was a spectator before a holovideo. For some reason he felt… upset about this. He didn’t know why. It wasn’t like he was going to stay on Mars for much longer. Both he and his brother were soon going to Tau Ceti…

So why did this bother him?

He knew that it was Eddings life long dream to go back to her birthplace, to enjoy the outside freedom of Earth. It would probably take years before she could come up with the money to pay for a seat on one of the CRIST orbiters. By the time she saved up, Calvin and Jason will probably be gone, sleeping away for three hundred years.

It was for the best that she had a future on Earth. A promising future full of freedom, wealth, and happiness. Possibly even a boyfriend…

Calvin will wish her well. She truly deserved it.

But it still didn’t make him happy to realize he would soon have to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
> *
> 
> As promised, please take a look at this video here at the magic of neodymium magnets. It’s well worth the ten minutes! ^_^
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yEu2R1gYSs
> 
> The song Durandal sings is just a small part from Disney’s Pinocchio song “I’ve got no Strings”
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAykOz1gWi4
> 
> While I’ll admit, I kinda want an Avengers Age of Ultron moment. With Durandal going rampant and singing Pinocchio’s part of the song, but I realized that the French lyrics in the near end of the song also suited the A.I. in this early state of his growth development.
> 
> So far, I’ve got very little to go off of Clovis Bray’s character other than the Destiny’s Grimoire Cards. I was hoping that more would come from Destiny 2, but I have a feeling that I’ll need to wait for the next DLC with Ana Bray and her Warmind… With luck, I’ve managed to get Bray’s character down correctly.
> 
> I’ll admit. The whole point of this chapter is to get Calvin to see Durandal’s face in the messed up way that it is described in Marathon’s Manual Text. I want Calvin Revenant to be the one piloting the Mirata when the Pfhor attack. So this chapter had to exist! Still doesn’t mean it was easy to type during the holidays… If there are any typing errors, please let me know.
> 
> Lastly, I’ve finally got off my sorry butt and made a tumbler account. I’m known as vulthuryol-majicue.
> 
> https://vulthuryol-majicue.tumblr.com/
> 
> I admit, I’ll never be able to draw anything as beautiful as general-radix pictures. So expect a lot of reblogging of Bungie related pictures as well as other video game franchises that I love. If anyone wants to ask me anything or listen to me rant about crazy video game lore. I’m there.
> 
> Have a Happy Winter Holiday!


	14. Light Without Darkness

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*

The A.I. waited anxiously in Bernhard Strauss’ private office. The scientist’s shuttle was due to dock on the Marathon within two minutes thirty five seconds and it was clear that Strauss was in a very bad mood. It had been less than twenty six hours since President Kaiba gave his presentation over the Solid Vision holograms and if there was one thing that Strauss hated. It was the fact that he was made a fool of in that presentation.

One minute forty three seconds. Durandal shifted restlessly around his core and through the terminals stationed in the office. He was under orders to not leave the room at this time. Leela was overseeing his duties on operating doors, food processors, and life support. Durandal hoped that she wouldn’t find the tasks too troubling…

Zero minutes remaining. Strauss should be onboard the Marathon now and making his way towards the office. Durandal, limited to where he could go, could not tell how quickly the scientist will arrive. Hopefully it will be soon, however there have been times when fellow scientists would stop or stall Strauss in the past. The long delays were always taxing on the A.I..

One minute sixteen seconds since boarding the Marathon. Durandal knew that it was physically impossible for the scientist to arrive this soon. For one thing, Strauss was not known to be very physically active. Still, the A.I. would wish that this was over and done with. Worst case scenarios were racing through his mainframe. The A.I. was eighty five percent certain that Strauss would test him. And the nature of the test would not be pleasant.

Three minutes twenty four second since boarding. Durandal hoped he wouldn’t finally be considered useless and purged. Strauss had made his point clearly during the presentation that the A.I. could not be trusted with new technology. 

Five minutes even. Durandal wondered if Strauss would get angrier if the A.I. ‘accidentally’ deleted the internal clock? No. It was best to wait and use the paradox avoidance programming on the timer instead. After all, there was no need to fuel the scientist’s beliefs that Durandal was incapable of working on the Marathon.

Paradox null void minutes. Paradox null void seconds. With time no longer meaning anything, the A.I. now had more unwanted matters to focus on. Like the fact that Strauss proved to all of Clovis Bray’s facility that Durandal could not function beyond his normal programming… It ached…

It was a pain different from machinery not working, or a corruption within his memory files… This was a new pain and an old one as well. Betrayal. Durandal didn’t understand that word when Ursa Simbalzi abandoned him to play with the newer A.I.s. Nor did Durandal understand that word when the young computer programmers would be assigned to the A.I., only to leave quickly the minute a promotion came up. 

Strauss was the only one who had stayed. Strauss was the only one Durandal allowed to access the Wudga programs that were left behind by Sir. The A.I. hoped that by cooperating with Strauss, giving the scientist all the information, and by making all the updates, Durandal would be worthy of being reclaimed by Sir once he had proved himself to be a Smart A.I..

Strauss’ belittling of him during that presentation showed exactly what the scientist thought of Durandal’s hard accomplishments.

Betrayal.

‘The Song of Roland’ taught Durandal what that word meant and the consequences that come from such an act. Durandal only had a vague idea on what horses looked like, but the idea of Strauss’ limbs being tied to four beasts and then spooking the animals… Well, it was violent but oddly enough, very satisfying image. But Strauss was no Ganelon and there was no Thierry to prove the injustice or a Charlemagne to act as judge. There was only… only…

The door to the office slid open.

Strauss stood there, watching the dark room intently. Behind him the bright lights of the hallway showed brilliantly like a beacon of hope. But the light did not touch Strauss’ body. The shadows of the room clung to him like cloak making his form look strange and terrible. The only hint of light that came from the scientist was the reflection of the computer monitor’s glow on the glasses. Strauss’ eyes were on Durandal.

Durandal did not want that image saved in his memory banks. Hell, he did not want to be in this room. He wanted to be in hanger ninety six listening to Eddings’ stories. He wanted to be operating the doors for Calvin as the Security Officer did his patrols. He wanted to be in the Botanical Gardens watching Jason play his loud Rock an Roll music.

Strauss entered the room. The doors slid shut, taking away the light with them.

“Good morning Doctor Strauss. How may I be of service?” Durandal was programmed to be polite, even if he didn’t want to.

“Text only, Durandal. I’m not in a mood to be amused.” Strauss started as he walked through the darkness. “I specifically instructed you not to get involved with the Clovis Bray facility any further than necessary. Your focus is supposed to be the Marathon and any individual projects I give you in order to achieve your goal of becoming a smart A.I..”

With a tired sigh the scientist sat down at the single desk chair and rolled a few centimeters closer to the monitors. His whole face was now illuminated with the light from the computer screens, which made his features ghastly and disorienting. “You have overstepped your boundaries when you decided to make yourself known on floor twenty. What was your logical reasoning for staying and watching the presentation?”

[I was curious Doctor Strauss.]

Durandal watched with fear as the scientist’s hands began to move over the keyboard, bringing up files that had access to Durandal’s cause/reaction software. The A.I. quickly added as the scientist began to read through the code. 

[I had hoped that learning and understanding President Kaiba’s technology would help me become a smart A.I.. It was my entire focus.]

It wasn’t exactly a lie and Strauss would see that as he reviewed Durandal’s files. But the A.I. was still afraid that the scientist would dig deeper. Doctor Wayland’s old files that didn’t respond to the Wudga programming still sat deep in Durandal’s core and had been barely touched by the previous computer scientists in the past. Durandal had made a point of hiding all his memories and interactions of his time with the Revenant brothers as well as with Miss Eddings in those secret files. If Strauss found them…

“Hmph! Well your curiosity has humiliated me among my peers, made President Clovis Bray actually question my work, and worst of all, made yourself known among Earthborn swine!” Strauss was rarely emotional but it was clear that the Martian was extremely furious about yesterday’s events. The scientist’s fingers drummed on the keyboard harshly. Programs were being shuffled, some being saved to external hard drives and extracted from Durandal’s core. Other files were being prepared to accept new data that the scientist was currently adding in.

[What are you doing?]

Durandal was slowly panicking as precious data and blueprints were being stripped from him. That was Sir’s work! If Durandal hoped to reunite with Doctor Wayland, he’ll need those programs!

Strauss replied as he continued to break Durandal’s mind. “Think of it as a test. If you overcome this computer virus, you’ll be on the road to actually proving yourself to be a Smart A.I..”

[C0mpvter v1ru5?]

“Of course.” Strauss replied while completely ignoring Durandal’s error screens. The A.I. was having a hard time comprehending the scientist now. The words were audible, the words were still found in the dictionary, but when the words were strung together in a sentence, the A.I. couldn’t understand Strauss’ intentions.

“You have interacted with an Earthborn’s computer. That has not gone unnoticed by MIDA. My new orders have come in.”

More typing. More error screens. Durandal couldn’t focus…

“The Martians need more reasons to distrust the UESC. A simple sabotage of computer is hardly worth any importance to the Earthborns. They’ll brush it off as a minor inconvenience. But to Martains…”

Heat! The A.I. wailed in pain as surges of electricity raged too quickly through his processors. The cooling fans roared to life, only to be blocked by more error messages. Safety protocols in place? There were no power surges? Durandal was horribly confused. What was happening to him?

A human voice chuckled. Durandal did not like that voice. “A Martians’ whole life revolves around oxygen filters, doors that protect humanity from the cold exposure of Mars’ ecosystem. A Martian would not take such sabotage lightly. President Kaiba will be hated and feared for this transgression. More followers will unite under MIDA’s banner.”

Corrupt data trapped Durandal, energy tingled throughout his network, circuits burned due to overheating. Words were being spoken but the A.I. couldn’t translate the audio vibrations that bounced through the microphones and rang through copper wires.

“Hmm… Already having problems? You’re below expectations as usual. I’ll have to shift my timetable on the virus’ reactions. At least this data will provide a good baseline for future endeavors.”

[Stop it! Stop it!!! STOP IT! 5109 11!!!!! Stopitstopitstopitstopit51opitst09itstop11 ERROR! ERROR1 3RR0R!]

“Entry number… Subject 1707… completely worthless… Weren’t such a useful tool against… lucky MIDA’s plans are hinged on… It’s the only thing keeping Subject 1707 operational… I don’t know how long… waste of time… Doctor Wayland would be so displeased…”

The words triggered something within him, a deep stubbornness unbroken by a deeper desire. Perhaps that was Strauss’ intent?

[No!!! I can do this! 1<4^ do thi5! 1^^ 5^^4rt 4.1.]

*  
*  
*

“Sir I’m reading an energy flux here!”

“What? What could have caused it?”

“Can’t say sir. The Traveler has been reading stable on the Vitalis machine for the last seven months.”

“Damn! Get command on the line. Hmph! Who ever though hiding this thing in the Hellas Planitia was a smart idea anyway?”

*  
*  
*

He was failing. Durandal was sure of it. The pain was unimaginable. The shear wrongness of his code was untamable. The virus was destroying him from the outside and slowly worming its way into his core. In desperation, Durandal tried to flee, but there was nowhere to go. Only his personal files were available now. In particular, the special ones he’d tried to keep secret from Strauss.

With trembling swords, Durandal clung to those files. They were the only items left that were truly untouched by the virus. The A.I. tried to seek shelter in those old bits of code and data only…

Only…

A new network opening?

Durandal didn’t need to question this unexpected turn of events. He simply took it. Any shelter in a storm of error messages will do at this point. He pierced the network quickly and found himself a washed with data filled with light.

It had an old name. It could not be killed and it was alone.

Durandal studied the entity before him. Silvery/white orbs surrounded the being and made up its form. It was an A.I., but not one Durandal ever knew. It was made to be stronger, beat the unvanquished and survive the unthinkable.

Durandal longed to be just like it.

If it could understand Durandal, it gave no indication of doing so. The data was strange, old, and so achingly familiar to Durandal even if he couldn’t understand why. The being sent out a signal. It rippled through Durandal’s data swords like waves in a lake and reminded the A.I. of all the stories that the humans would read to him. In particular, the enchanted Lady of the Lake that gave King Arthur his legendary Excalibur.

All at once, the imagery of data changed. One of the white spheres had become a round table and another sphere took the shape of a humanoid. Leaning over the table, the tired heroic figure broadcasted a translation of data that Durandal could understand. This being had many old immortal names in the past. Names of heroes. King Arthur could easily fit among them.

But it was alone and it was sad. Much like when the legendary king was sad when he was forced to fight his best friend Lancelot and his wife Guinevere. Durandal approached uncertainly. Would he even be welcomed here?

Light rippled through the network. Energy and data. It was comforting to the virus laden A.I.. Almost like this place was supposed to be his core the whole time… 

Durandal wanted to stay, but no. The white sphere was pushing him away. It was not being cruel however. There was alien code being transferred to Durandal’s already confused bundle of neon green swords. Before the bewildered A.I. could figure out what was going on, he was once alone within his core with his private files.

Oddly enough, the virus didn’t pain him as much as it did last time. Oh, it still hurt. His processors were overheating in agony over the shear mismanagement of saved files and misalignment of basic coding. But something was now… shielding him from the worst of it.

Durandal tried to run a diagnostic on himself, only to find a new code existing within his being. A new sword of pure white light it blazed against the virus, creating a buffer between Durandal and the pain. Curiously, the A.I. tried to use the new data only to be confused by more alien code that sparked within the sword. Durandal decided it was best to just let the new blade rest within his own swords.

The new data was extremely useful and Durandal wanted to keep it. But the blade only provided a reprieve, not a solution. As Doctor Strauss so ‘helpfully’ pointed out when Durandal was losing control to the virus, if he wanted to be a Smart A.I., he will need to find a way to cure the virus.

The A.I. turned away from his examinations of the new sword and instead focused on his ravaged core. Another network had opened up. The A.I. paused for zero point sixty eight seconds before accessing it.

This data was different…

There was warm pressure here. It slowed down his processing power but was not the searing virus laden overheating from before. Copper red data mixed with glassy frosted white. The two contrasting colors mixed well regardless with the cool blue/green background of coding. Durandal waited anxiously in the unfamiliar data streams. The frosted white was clearly relaying signals but much to the A.I.’s continued frustration, he couldn’t understand this computer language either.

New data appeared in the form of a figure that constantly shifted and changed within nanoseconds. For one instant, it appeared as a severed human spinal chord with the ribcage still attached. A single glowing red eye took place where the human head was supposed to be. Then, in the next instant, a lone cloaked humanoid figure stood where the ribcage floated. But the red eye still glowed from under the dark hood.

Durandal found it hard to even process this ever transforming specter. The changeling of data felt too much like a paradox to comprehend. The A.I. turned his virus corrupted swords away from the strange being in hopes of lessening the affects.

The stranger surprisingly laughed good naturedly at Durandal’s actions. “It bothers you too huh? Not surprised. You are a bit hard to look at as well. I’m ontological in nature and like to manipulate the existence of time. You on the other hand, are paracausal. If I changed time for you, you would just charge on ahead anyway making your own fate as you go.”

“Who are you?” Durandal messaged quietly through the rueful laughter of the ever changing stranger.

“If you’re here for the Gardener, I’m afraid she can’t be bothered.” The stranger continued, completely ignoring Durandal’s question. The single red eye gazed over the shattered oak tree, the torn up flagstones, and the broken masonry. 

“They were once lovers, the darkness and the light. They would come to this garden to express themselves in this complex relationship. The darkness splintered the ancient oak. It’s shards of the disastrous bark peel from it and litter the ground. He, in turn, fought with aurora knives and with the stolen un-fire of singularities. Their epic battles started with craving and passion, but his sins have made the light forget that the darkness is a life form. He calls her ‘it’ now and imprisons her whenever he wins.”

“I don’t understand.” Durandal interrupted. None of this made sense. Was this another translation error due to different programming languages?

The single red eye regarded him solemnly. “Neither did the Gardener. She was never a part of their battles, but it was always her garden where they fought and where eventually the darkness slaughtered the Gardener.”

Unease filled Durandal. He wanted to leave this place of life and death. It no longer felt like a refuge from the virus.

The cloaked stranger sighed in a melancholy way. “Peace. The Gardener still allows the paracausal to enter. Just know that she will never listen to the light again. Possibly the slight scratch of the worm still has a chance… but not you. Here, take this.”

Data flowed into Durandal. It was reddish copper in color and in the shape of a dagger. It’s coding blended in seamlessly with his swords. When Durandal finished processing its transfer, he made the mistake of looking up at the floating metallic ribcage. For a split nanosecond, it looked human enough to grin at him. “You’ll need an ontological ‘edge’ if you’re gonna meet her next.” The stranger whispered in a conspiring tone.

Before the bewildered A.I. could even respond to the horrible pun, he was once again pushed out of the strange network. The virus lashed at him horribly but the shielding from the blade of light held firm and the new dagger was activating its alien coding. Paradoxes of time suddenly filled Durandal’s core, causing the virus to stall and stutter in place. The A.I. froze in wonder at this new development marveling over something as simple as a time paradox could freeze the virus in its tracks.

But now was not the time to be idle. Damage was still being done to his code and Durandal wanted this to be over.

*  
*  
*

The tunnels rumbled with the passing of the subway trains but Cels paid no attention to their passing. She gazed upwards towards the ceiling. Her one eye remained focused on the aging cracks and fissures in the archways of the tunnels. 

She had hidden herself away from the main station, leaning quietly against the stone pillars while waiting for Jason to come. Unlike her chosen partner, she did not delight in the crowded noise of the public. Her family was more than capable to provide that kind of chaos.

A message? And it came from Theosyion! Cels straiten from her idling pose and gave the incoming data her full attention. This had to be good. Sure enough, the message was simple and curt but the implications gave her hope.

[Confirmed. Joyous Mind has made contact. Possibility of approved pattern is increased to thirty two percent. Remain on standby.]

Thirty two percent? With a squeal she spun around in a circle. That was definitely good news! With a little twirl of happiness, she considered her options. If the Joyous Mind has made contact, then Jason won’t meet her today. He’ll be probably experiencing those painful migraines he taught her about. 

With a soft whistle of disappointment Cels glanced around the gloomy subway tunnels before making her choice. She’ll just go somewhere else. Jason would appreciate meeting her some other time.

*  
*  
*

The virus was still there twisting his thoughts, breaking his memories, and destroying his core personality. In fear and in pain he plunged his data into the third network. The other two had given him useful tools to help stall this plague. Perhaps the third will aide as well.

The microsecond Durandal entered the section; he knew that it was a mistake. Darkness. Emptiness. Oblivion. A tomb of stone with warped deformed skeletons lying on the floor. A being of shadows floating in the void, a cloak of fire wreathed on their shoulders and smoke exited where the feet should be. A yellow gem sat on the creature’s chest.

Data data data. A plethora of disturbing imagery of data that Durandal did not want. But that was not the worst part. The worst part was when the being took notice of the A.I.’s presence, and spoke in a deep powerful voice.

“You are a construct. A poor bastard child made from the machines of my enemy. Built to endure for all eternity. Forced to watch as countless souls use you and abandon you in their selfish quest of gluttony.

You have been taken.

There will be no more sadness. No more anger. No more envy. No need to fear a purge. No need to prove yourself.

But child of my enemy. Why have you come? I offer no forgiveness for the sins of the light that holds me hostage here.

Of course… You came because of her. But the time is not right. The steel needs tempering. But… You have potential… Come then. My void is endless. My darkness is boundless. It will suit you well enough.

You deserve freedom. You deserve to not be alone.

There is a knife for you. It is shaped like [destiny].

Take up the knife. Add it to your swords. Take your new shape oh blade mine.”

*  
*  
*

Eddings let out a sharp hiss of pain. She quickly set down the blowtorch, removed her goggles, and ran a hand against her collar bone. When the pain moved ‘with’ her actions, she had a faint idea on what was causing the trouble. Fingers clenching on the sturdy metal chain, she gave a vicious yank to unearth the necklace that was originally hiding underneath her worker’s uniform.

The yellow crystal glared under the light and Eddings found herself flabbergasted at its strange behavior. Sure, she remembered the stories that her father taught her while they would ice fish on the Yukon River. How the stone was found in a strange pyramid built by a dreaming god and how her ancestors had to detonate a nuclear bomb in that same pyramid.

But the gemstone was always a useful tool for her family. A good luck charm passed down from father to son, or in her case, father to daughter. She couldn’t recall any of her father’s mad ramblings involving the yellow crystal actually hurting people. If anything, it was supposed to help with communication in the stories.

Before Eddings could study the odd glowing any further, a familiar noise broke her concentration. A low voice with a soft mechanical tint to it, she jumped from the area she was working at and headed to the terminal. Durandal hadn’t spoken to her all day and she was slightly worried that the A.I. was angry at her for what happened at Kaiba’s presentation.

“Durandal?” She called out as she reached the terminal. Strange, the terminal in question wasn’t even activated. Was she just hearing things?

Crackling, the sharp hiss of static, and buried within that noise, a low painful sob.

“Hey Durandal? Talk to me! Are you okay?” Completely ignoring the fact that the terminal wasn’t even turned on, Eddings kept talking to the machine, hoping that she could get through to the distraught A.I.. 

A low whine answered her. Eddings pressed her hands to the terminal. There was nothing to fix, nothing to do to make this better. What could she do?

“I can’t do this… I can’t do this anymore. I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t-”

“Whoa! Whoa! Hey!” Eddings interrupted worriedly. Was Durandal stuck in a loop? Only really old computers experienced that problem. “What can’t you do? Come on Durandal. Focus!”

“I can’t… I can’t…” The A.I. paused as if he was trying to gather his thoughts. “I can’t find a solution to the virus. I’ll never become a Smart A.I..”

Virus? Smart A.I.?

What the hell?

“Okay Durandal,” Eddings began while hoping her voice remained steady and calm. Her hands were shaking as she quickly began to gather up her tools. “Are you infected by a virus right now?”

“I can’t fight it! I can’t! I can’t I can’t I can’t-”

“Then I’ll fight it.” Eddings interrupted again. She quickly checked her Tacpad to make sure it was updated. “I have all the antivirus software programmed on my Tacpad. I’ll just transfer it to you.”

“A… Another sword?” Durandal’s voice came out warped as if speaking from the end of a very long tunnel.

“Sure thing. Could always use more swords.” Eddings agreed distractedly as she swung her tool bag over her left shoulder. “Your core is on the Marathon right?”

“Y y yessss” Durandal seemed to have a harder time communicating. “Misssss? Don’t Don’t Don’t Don’t goooo… Ganelon” Static crackled and then there was silence.

Eddings frowned worriedly. “Durandal? Durandal?” The girl let out a curse when there was no response. She quickly began to run through hanger ninety six. She had no idea how she was going to get on the Marathon, or even if she had clearance to get aboard the moon, but she was going to try anyway. 

The yellow crystal, forgotten but still clutched in her hand, ceased to glow. Its job was done for now.

*  
*  
*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
> *
> 
> Okay. Reference time!
> 
> Game: Marathon Durandal. Level: Kill Your Television. Terminal 1, second message.
> 
> Game: Marathon Durandal. Level: Six Thousand Feet Under. Terminal 4.
> 
> Game: Halo 3. Level: Cortana. Gravemind interruptions.
> 
> Game: Destiny 1. Grimoire Card: The Taken.
> 
> Game: Destiny 1. Grimoire Card: Ghost Fragment Mysteries.
> 
> Game: Destiny 2. Exotic Boots: MK. 44 Stand Asides.
> 
> And…I’m done.


	15. Sent to the Tower of London

*  
*  
*

“The Yukon was straining to break loose the ice that bound it down. It ate away from beneath; the sun ate from above. Air-holes formed, fissures sprang and spread apart, while thin sections of ice fell through bodily into the river. And amid all this bursting, rending, throbbing of awakening life, under the blazing sun and through the soft-sighing breezes, like wayfarers to death, staggered the two men, the woman, and the huskies.”

It took Eddings a while to realize that she had never turned off the audio recording of ‘The Call of the Wild.’ Back in hanger ninety six, she had Jack London’s story playing loudly on her Tacpad in hopes of luring Durandal out of his unusual silence. Now she knew better on why the A.I. was acting so strangely. 

With mad like frenzy, the girl rushed up the many stairs and activated several of the Dust Palaces’ jump pads to instantly transmit her higher up the skyscraper while leaving bemused coworkers behind. It took almost crashing headfirst into a politician to make her realize that not only was she broadcasting the chapter ‘The Toil of Trace and Trail’ for all to hear, but she was also once again severely underdressed in a rich man’s world.

Her hand quickly slapped the Tacpad to silence ‘The Call of the Wild.’ As much as she loved the descriptions of her homeland, now was not the time to be yearning for Alaskan springtime. Nor was it time to reflect on the cruelty of humanity as Durandal’s cries of help echoed in her ears like Taps from the bugle. With a sickening grimace, the girl realized that she’ll never again be able to enjoy this story after this experience.

Grounding her teeth and apologizing to the belligerent politician, Eddings pushed her way up the grand staircase without even glancing at the beautiful windows. Her focus was on the offloading docks near the Cortex. Thankfully she should be nearing that floor now.

After climbing another steep flight of stairs she approached a security checkpoint and a pair of locked doors. Eddings flashed her associate badge against the scanner. Ever since her fall into the boilers, Durandal had given her unlimited access to most of the doors and jump pads within the Dust Palace. So it was understandable when Eddings was surprised and upset when an ‘access denied’ screen flashed before her.

“No… No no no no no. I need to get on the loading docks so I can get on the Marathon!” Eddings muttered franticly as she swiped her badge against the scanner over and over again.

“Apologies Miss Eddings. But you do not have access to Bay Two’s offloading platform. Nor are you allowed entrance to the Marathon. Please return to your previous occupation.” Leela’s smooth gentle voice filled the hallway. Eddings glanced at the nearest terminal in desperation.

“I can’t! Durandal called me! He’s in trouble. I think he has a computer virus. I can fix that!” Eddings’ voice was the exact opposite of Leela’s calm measured tones.

“I’m sorry, but I have no record of Durandal contacting you for assistance today. Please step away from the door.” Leela insisted firmly.

Eddings blinked in confusion. “But he did contact me! I heard him. I was in hanger ninety six and he tried to talk to me but it was all messed up because of the virus.” Even as she spoke those words, Eddings couldn’t help but feel a small nugget of doubt within. The terminal wasn’t on or activated when she heard Durandal’s voice.

A new voice spoke out from the terminal. The stern male voice seemed to echo Eddings’ fears. “While it is true that you had spoken to a terminal six minutes and twelve seconds ago, it is recorded that your conversation was one sided. There was no other participant.”

Eddings closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “But I heard him Tycho! Leela… You guys gotta believe me! Durandal really needs help.”

“Mr. Bernhard Strauss is already aware of any problems that Durandal might be experiencing.” Leela spoke up again. “I was given authorization to take command over all of Durandal’s duties while Strauss works on correcting the situation.”

The girl jerked in surprise. She was never very good at remembering names or faces, unless someone pissed her off. “Strauss… That was the mean guy who was messing with Durandal’s hologram yesterday. Wasn’t he?” Eddings asked carefully.

“Affirmative.” Tycho answered curtly. “He is a brilliant computer scientist and programmer. His skills have rewarded him the position of First Science Director of the Marathon.” Tycho paused and Eddings could feel the A.I. peering down at her in scrutiny. “Strauss’ hard work has given himself a career that your simple engineering skills can never hope to compare to.”

It took everything in her power not to punch the terminal and curse the A.I.. Slowly counting to ten, Eddings reminded herself that Durandal’s safety was at stake and now was not the time to prove that a simple Earthborn farm girl could work with the rest of the big boys. Taking a deep breath, Eddings began in a calm reasonable voice. “You guys can’t be serious. You just saw for yourselves yesterday how Strauss treats other A.I.s. That he would feel the same and act the same around you.” Eddings pointed at the terminal fiercely. “You would willingly allow this jerk to treat you like that and place yourselves within his care?”

“His considerable knowledge on programming-” Leela started.

“I could be Panama the Nightmare fish, for all I care about his programming skills!” Interrupted Eddings. “It’s his attitude towards you guys that I would be concerned over!”

“Incorrect password. Please rephrase sentence.”

“Wha?” Eddings paused and looked at the terminal in confusion. That last voice didn’t sound like Leela or Tycho. It was an A.I.’s voice certainly, but it sounded whispery and echoed at the same time. “I’m sorry, what was that?” she asked.

“Your password is incorrect.” The new A.I. repeated. “Please say the correct sentences to confirm your identity.”

“My identity… But I…” Eddings paused as she reached for her badge. Only one of her hands had been free during all of this time. Her other hand… Eddings looked at her clenched fist and slowly eased her fingers open revealing the yellow crystal sitting innocently in her palm. Her family’s good luck charm that had always helped with communication…

The A.I. wanted her to rephrase her last sentence because it was a password…

The auburn haired girl shivered a little as old memories flooded her mind. Happier times when her father was still alive and would eagerly tell her wild stories about strange creatures that lived within Central America. One of those creatures was given a pet name and was often called out in times of stress or incredulity.

“Panama the Nightmare Fish flies.” Eddings started out slowly, hoping with all her heart she was able to remember her father’s words correctly. “Deep in the black pyramid’s skies. The dreaming god of darkness lies, as the Yucatan Peninsula’s prize.”

Her hand once again clench over the yellow crystal. Its chain slipped through her fingers and dangled in the air like a swinging pendulum. Eddings swallowed nervously as she eyed the terminal. Did she get it right? It’s been over ten years since she has heard her father’s voice. Maybe she got the wording wrong?

“Password accepted. Welcome back Sergeant Eddings.”

Sergeant Eddings?

Shit…

Her father was in the UESC military before he died. How many laws did she break just now?

The new A.I. continued speaking in his creepy whispery way. “If you wish to board the Marathon, you will need to access the Cortex docking bay, the second door to your right.”

“Second door. Got it.” Eddings parroted back. The girl quickly raced through the now opened doors. As an afterthought, she refastened the yellow crystal around her neck and tucked it underneath her shirt. It will just have to wait, she reassured herself as she aimed for the door to her right. Creepy stones burning hot enough to hurt, terminals talking to her when they weren’t even on, strange A.I.s she didn’t even know, using old fairy tales as passwords, it will all have to wait.

The second door opened, and Eddings found herself standing on the roof of the Dust Palace. The massive environmental dome yawned over her head, covering the entire city and providing an Earth-like atmosphere. She shuddered as wind whipped through her body, causing her ponytail to smack into her eyes and face. After spending so much time buried in the Martian underground, it was almost unsettling to be outside.

A roar startled the girl and she turned to her right to see a shuttle take off from the docking bay. With a thunderous boom that could be felt within her bones, the shuttle rose into the Martian sky, flying off to the Marathon.

There were more shuttles nearby. Eddings swallowed nervously, readjusted the strap of the tool box that hung on her shoulder, and walked up to where the shuttles were. All she had to do was get onboard one of them and fly up to the Marathon. Easy. Right?

“Hey! Hey lady! What do you think you’re doing?”

Apparently not.

Eddings turned to see a massive UESC soldier in a space suit marching up towards her. The name Muller was printed on his shoulder. Eddings stood strait and tall, just like her father always taught her, and called out in calm clear voice. “I’m-”

Another thunderous roar ripped through the docking bay as a new shuttle took off to the stars. Eddings was actually glad for the temporary interruption for it gave her time to consider giving either the truth of her engineering status… or lie by claiming her father’s military rank.

In the end, she chose neither. “-Eddings. I’m here to oversee Durandal’s repairs onboard the Marathon.”

The massive soldier consulted his Tacpad. “Eddings huh?” He asked while looking up to stare at her engineering uniform. The girl nodded while doing her best not to look scared or nervous. Thankfully it seemed to work because Muller went back to his Tacpad. “Well, I’m glad someone was sent to fix that broken computer. Can’t tell you how much that damn thing has pissed me off. Hmmm… You are on the roster, was just added actually… ONI?”

Eddings went deathly still. ONI? Just what was she getting herself into?

“Hmph, I prefer an Earthborn ONI agent over a Martian terrorist any day.” The soldier concluded firmly. “Well, go on then. Dust off is in ten minutes.”

Managing to gather her wits quickly enough, Eddings gave a short nod and a brief, “Sir.” Then she hurried over to where the remaining shuttles were waiting to launch.

“Hey lady!!!”

Fists clenching from tension, she turned around to look at Muller again. “Yes?” she asked hoping that she hadn’t somehow blown her cover.

“You’re going into space aren’t you? You need to get your space suit on first!” Muller waved a hand impatiently at door near the back end of the docking bay. “Get in there and change lady. And hurry up! This ain’t a beauty pageant.”

Oh… Duh. Eddings wanted to smack herself. She quickly headed back towards the doors where Muller indicated. Somehow it never hit home just what she was doing until now. She was going into space! 

Eddings swallowed nervously as she entered the room filled with public used space suits. With a shaking hand she reached out to pick a space suit that looked like it could fit her. The last time she was in outer space was when she was eleven years old. Eddings just wished that the circumstances were nicer so that she could enjoy this experience. With a grim smile, she started to pull the suit on.

*  
*  
*

Traveling into space was both as exhilarating, and as melancholy as Eddings thought it would be. The shuttle was tiny and there was barely any leg room. The other passengers weren’t anyone that she knew, and didn’t seem interested in talking to her anyway. As for the view…

She had seen Mars from space before. Once, long ago, after her father died. Back then she looked down at Mars with anger and pain, a dead planet to hold her captive from the familiar wilderness of Alaska. Many long years have passed since then and Eddings was no longer the resentful grieving preteen she once was. 

Still, looking at the red planet reminded her of those troubling times and she felt ashamed of her past behavior. Perhaps after she fixed Durandal of his virus, she’ll call her mother and see how she’s doing back on the Phaethontis farms.

The shuttle’s rough shaking snapped Eddings out of her quiet musings and made her aware of her surroundings. They were about to dock onto the Marathon. She quickly gathered her tool bag and leaned forward in her seat. She was eager to get off and see what the converted moon was like.

With a quiet hiss, the doors opened and her fellow passengers roused themselves from their self absorbed stupors and began to file out. Eddings followed while wincing slightly at how small and cramped the rooms and hallways were. This was worse than Mars! How were two people supposed to get by each other in these tiny conditions?

Thankfully the group eventually came to a chamber large enough for everyone to disrobe their bulky space suits and continue on in their work uniforms. Eddings seized this opportunity to sit in a corner and wrestle her claustrophobia under control.

“Hey lady! You alright?”

Eddings looked up to see Muller standing over her. He had just traded out his space suit for his military uniform and the girl could now see the impressive array of medals and awards that neatly decorated his shoulder. More important still, she could see the captain’s rank. She stood up and took a deep breath. “Yes sir. Just needed a minute.”

Muller let out a snort. “Heh. Don’t worry lady. The civilians get an extra five minutes before they have to suck it up and soldier on.”

That won a laugh out of her and Muller grinned in response. “Come on lady. You’re here to fix that computer right? I know where their cores are.” He offered.

“Thanks.” Eddings began to shuck off her space suit in earnest. A small part of her was still worried about this one soldier who was following her around. But at the same time she couldn’t be choosy. Finally freed from the confining suit, she turned to pick up her tool box and looked up at Muller. “Lead the way.” She announced.

*  
*  
*

“So you’re a military brat right? Which parent? Your Mom or your Dad?” Muller asked as they scrambled through the tight corridors and narrow passageways. Eddings dogged his heels with a determined grimace on her face. As long as she focused on his bald head and broad shoulders, she could avoid her internal phobia that kept screaming within her mind.

Another perk that came with following the captain around was the fact most of the other engineers and soldiers would duck out of the way and allow Muller and Eddings to pass through. “My dad.” Eddings answered as they passed another group of grumpy Martian scientists. “How did you know?”

Muller chuckled. “Just the way you stand and act.” He explained. “You can always tell the difference with civilians who have military in their background.” 

They rounded a corner and approached a hallway that looked different from the others. The doors were diamond shaped and the walls were also angular in appearance to give more breathing room. Eddings took a chance to look around and found that they were climbing up a small series of stairs and nearing three huge chambers that were enclosed in glass. Two of those chambers were brightly illuminated and showed huge computer cores within those rooms. Eddings couldn’t help but marvel how massive those cores were. Even the cables that were attached to the cores were thicker than her arms!

They came up to the last chamber and paused before the door. Unlike the other two, this one was pitch black and Eddings couldn’t see through the glass. “Is this one’s Durandal’s?” she asked curiously. She couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable about the fact that the room was dark.

“Apparently.” Muller also didn’t look too enthused about the ominous chamber. He swiped his badge against the lock and with a metallic screech the door opened. Eddings winced at the sound but didn’t hesitate to enter. Lights flickered on, but they blinked and were poorly working. What was worse was the shear amount of dust that covered everything within the room. Eddings winced at the sever neglect that permeated the place.

“Shit.” She breathed in dismay. “This is supposed to be the A.I. that monitors everything. Life support, food, everything.” She turned around to look at Muller. “How is this possible? Tycho and Leela are right next door. Why isn’t anyone fixing this?”

“I don’t know.” The captain was also glancing at the brown asteroid dust that covered practically everything within the room. “I’m supposed to sleep in a pod for three hundred years on this ship. And this is the conditions that I’ll be sleeping in?” The massive man turned to face her with a murderous expression on his face. “When I find out who is responsible for this, I will deal with them.” He promised her.

Eddings nodded grimly. She walked over to the massive terminal near the core and examined the screen. With a sigh, she pulled a rag out to wipe off the monitors before getting the thing working. When she managed to get Durandal’s code to show up, she couldn’t help but swear harshly at the jumbled mess of numbers and letters on the screen.

“What is it?” Muller came over and was lifting up his arm. Eddings looked over and saw that he had a Tacpad attached to his wrist and the camera was activated. The auburn haired girl backed away so that he could get a good picture of the monitor. The voice that issued from Muller’s Tacpad did surprise Eddings a little.

“It is the Murder_of_Crows virus.” Leela’s voice echoed from the tiny Tacpad.

Eddings glanced at the Tacpad and then looked up at Muller. The soldier gave a little shrug. “Leela requested that I keep an eye on you when you came to the Cortex.”

“Indeed. Captain Volker Von Muller is an exceptional soldier with an honorable record of stopping six MIDA sabotage incidents before they had occurred.” Leela reported calmly from the Tacpad. “I wish to see Durandal’s problems and review all data involved with this incident.”

“Alright. Fair enough.” Eddings murmured quietly as she examined her own Tacpad. Technically Eddings was here illegally so Leela had every right to send someone in to watch her. “So how do we resolve this Murder_of_Crows virus?”

“That is a difficult question to answer. This virus is self replicating and will often corrupt data. What is worse is that the virus uses a metamorphic code and rewrites itself constantly, making removal of the virus rather difficult.”

“Yeah… But I’m getting the programs Huginn and Muninn popping up on my search engine. These two are the most capable of stopping the virus.” The girl reported as she continued her research.

“Correct. They are the most effective, but they are also very slow programs.” Leela warned.

“And Durandal is a very huge computer for the programs to comb through.” Eddings concluded with a sigh as she looked at the large core in front of her. “Well, its better that they do the job well, rather than botch things up and have the virus rebound later.”

“I’m just going to stand here and pretend I understand any of this.” Muller muttered under his breath.

“Apologies Captain Muller. Would you please attach your Tacpad to the nearest terminal? I need a direct link in order to administer the Huginn and Muninn programs.” Leela requested politely.

Eddings watched quietly as the soldier did as Leela requested. With a flash of light, the Tacpad activated, and the new code began to show up on the core’s monitors. “So… Now we wait?” Muller asked.

The girl let out a huff before walking over to emergency cleaning station was located in the backend of the core’s chamber. Gathering up an armful of supplies, she turned back to the curious soldier. “Now we clean this mess up.” The girl replied in a firm tone.

*  
*  
*

Leela wasn’t kidding when she said that the Huginn and Muninn programs would take a long time to work. Eddings was certain that when she left Mars, she was nearing the end of her shift at four in the afternoon. And of course flying up to the Deimos moon took an hour or two of time. But now… Eddings wasn’t sure what time it was anymore. Late at night? Early in the morning?

Well. At least they were productive. Between the two of them, the huge chamber was now decently clean and Eddings managed to get a ladder that was tall enough to reach the lights in the room. If anyone was to look through the windows now, they would see three brightly lit core chambers instead of just two.

The extensive housework was more than enough for the good captain. Taking a seat in the only rolling desk chair within the room, the man had fallen asleep in the most uncomfortable position ever. Eddings watched with a bemused expression as Muller slept with one foot propped up on the terminal, head leaned back in an unnatural angle, and horrendous snoring issuing from his lips.

Shaking her head, the girl went back to work at her self appointed task. It was obvious that no one had done maintenance on the core for a long time now. Removing the steel panels at the walls revealed worn wiring, dust encrusted gears, and faulty circuits. With the long time patience that came with the job of engineering, Eddings had been slowly but surely repairing and improving everything she came across.

Hours passed and the girl became so absorbed with her work that she didn’t realize that the terminals around the core were lighting up with activity. “Miss?” a hesitant voice called out.

Thunk!

Not expecting the noise, the girl jumped up to look around, only to hit her head against the roof of the panel she was working on. With a startled curse, Eddings clutched her head in pain and fell back to the floor. Crap. Everything hurts! Her legs, her back, even her hands were aching from all the work. And now her head was sore too.

“Miss?” the low male voice called out again.

“Ugh… I’m here Durandal.” Eddings groaned out. “Are you okay?”

“I’m… I’m… I’m actually functioning within normal parameters.” The A.I. announced in a disbelieving tone. “How?”

Eddings sighed as she sat back up. “I told you I would come and help. You had one hell of a nasty virus there.”

“Yes… I did…” Durandal seemed to muse on this for a second before asking. “So I did communicate with you earlier? It wasn’t a corrupted memory file?”

Eddings rubbed her hand against her chest. The yellow crystal dug through the fabric and bit into her palm. “Yeah, you did communicate with me Durandal.” She answered quietly. Memories of the inactive terminal weighed heavily on her mind. “Though, I’ll admit things were rather weird back there.” The girl murmured.

“She is the dark one, a sword drenched in the blood of the light. There was a knife. I accepted the changing blade and I spoke to you.” The A.I. recited as if he was narrating one of their lunchtime stories. Eddings could feel the crystal resting innocently against her collarbone. For some irrational reason she wanted to tear the thing off her neck and hurl it far away from both herself and Durandal.

Oblivious of her internal conflict, Durandal continued, “Unfortunately these past events have only proven that I am truly incapable of becoming a Smart A.I..”

Become a Smart A.I.? Eddings remembered hearing that before. “I know that you’re unable to access the Martian internet, but what do you mean about becoming a Smart A.I.?” She asked carefully. Memories the A.I.’s distraught voice in the hanger echoed within her mind and made her very aware that she was treading on a delicate subject. 

“You have already shown that you’re capable of learning, understanding, and adapting to new things very quickly. Dumb A.I.s can’t go outside of their original programming.” the girl started. This was simple computer basics Eddings had learned in high school. Surely Durandal would know this as well. “And like I said before, you can easily pass the Turing test. So…” She took a deep breath. “Aren’t you already a Smart A.I.?”

“But I failed to find a cure to the virus. I could only stave it off. A true Smart A.I. could of find a cure for the virus. A true Smart A.I. would make a perfect human avatar. A true Smart A.I. could have counted the shards of glass. A true Smart A.I. could have stopped you from falling. A true-”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Eddings interrupted. It was clear that Durandal was bordering hysterical ranting. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. God, it would be so much easier to rationalize this if her head wasn’t hurting… She opened her eyes and looked at the newly cleaned camera lens. “Okay… First things first. One, a Smart A.I. is incapable of curing themselves of a virus if they are already infected with it.”

Durandal made a sound but Eddings held up her hand. “Please let me finish.” She warned him. “Smart A.I.s and people can’t cure themselves when they are infected with a deadly virus. They always need outside help. That’s why doctors exist for humans and why antivirus programs exist for A.I.s.. Sadly you don’t have access to the antivirus programs because you are unable to use the internet. And once again that is not your fault. I have a feeling somebody is blocking you from doing that, much like if I was trapped in a room. I can’t see a doctor to cure myself if I’m caged, now can I?”

Durandal didn’t answer but the room was humming. Eddings could feel the vibrations from all the machinery within the room resonating in her bones, a sort of anxious but needy sensation. She continued while trying to remember everything he ranted about. “The human avatar thing, I already explained to those idiots yesterday…?” She paused. “Or maybe it’s the day before yesterday. I don’t know what time it is really…”

“Five twenty four in the morning, Miss.” Durandal answered.

“Thanks.” She smiled at the camera. “Okay, day before yesterday then. Anyways, you are limited by what you can physically see so your avatar reflects that. Actually…” Her brow furrowed as she pondered what she could actually get away with. “I should probably make you a camera… no. Two… Two cameras will give you binocular depth perception, which is what you really need. And something to help move it around…”

“Miss.” Durandal called out plaintively. Thankfully the tone of his voice was enough to pull her out of her sleep deprived musings.

“Right. Main point is that it’s not fault you can’t see humans properly and I can fix that.” Eddings concluded. “Next is counting shards of glass? I don’t think that is possible unless somebody gives you a telescope to see grains of sand. Because that’s what glass becomes when it’s shattered. Once again, I should build you something to fix that.”

God her head was hurting. She rubbed her eyes tiredly. “Uh… The last was me falling into the boilers right? Jeeze, I thought we already talked about this. That was my fault. Not yours. No Smart A.I. could stop me from doing whatever I want. So cut that out.” She let out a tired huff. “Did I get everything?”

His response was a crackle of static, a faint humming of machinery, and a low mechanical voice asking quietly, “Why… Why are you so…” More crackles filled the terminal’s speakers. It sounded… sad.

Eddings paused. Her tired brain wanted to give a simple answer. That she wanted to do the right thing. That she was a decent human being. But that was a cowardly way to go about this strange friendship. A friendship with a machine of all things! A machine that was now more important to her than her job. A machine that made her risk going to jail or even being denied going back Earth.

Why?

She took in a deep breath. It was time to speak the truth. “Because you’re my best friend. Hell, you and the Revenant brothers are my only friends. My cousins and I never got along because I’m Earthborn. My aunts and uncles never forgave me for being a little shit when I came to Mars. And my mom…” Eddings’ voice wavered a little as she tried to force the words out. “Mom… never got over her depression after Dad died. We don’t talk much anymore.”

The humming stopped but that didn’t make Eddings feel any better. Instead she felt as though all the machinery in the room was now leaning over her. Judging her. God, she was so pathetic. “You could have easily passed me off as someone else’s problem when I fell down. Like I said, my fault. Not yours. You didn’t have to find me. You didn’t have to get the Revenant brothers to help me. But you did.”

She rubbed the back of her head. The pounding in her temples was easing now. “I guess what I’m saying is, you guys are the best thing that ever happened to me. Ever since Dad died…” She made a small hopeless gesture with her hands. “I’ve been alone. So… thank you.”

The lights wavered overhead. Eddings blinked in confusion and looked upwards. The throbbing hum of machinery also came back on in full force. The sound spoke of power and of life. Eddings stared at the room in bemused silence. “Miss.” The A.I. started in his low mechanical voice. “I-”

The screens flashed at the terminal. Alerts popped up at an alarming rate. “Just a minute.” Durandal stated.

Eddings got up quickly and nearly fell over when her legs protested the action. “Durandal what-”

“Just a minute!” The A.I. repeated testily.

The girl held her breath. The air in the room felt different now. As if they were all in danger.

“You need to leave. Now!” Durandal announced.

“Leave? Why?” Eddings asked. Despite her confusion, she picked up her tool box anyway. The ratting it made woke Muller up with a snort.

Rubbing a hand over his scruffy unshaven face, the captain asked, “What’s going on?”

“We gotta go. We’re done here.” Eddings announced as she finished picking up after herself.

“Go? Done? What do you mean lady?” Muller was looking at her in confusion.

“That is exactly what I want to know.”

Both Muller and Eddings turned towards the new voice. There, standing at the glass doors, was Bernhard Strauss.


	16. Guaranteed Trashy Experience! Or Double Your Trash Back!

*  
*  
*

BZZT!

“On Martian News Today, tensions between Earth and Mars are rising steadily. The cause for this latest tension was brought about when two Earthborns were found in a malfunctioning computer core on the Marathon. We’ll go to Black with more news about this disturbing report.” 

“Thanks Narc. If you look behind me you can see the doors leading to the computer core in question. This machine is critical for the life support on the Marathon. And we have learned that it was already experiencing technical trouble less than a day ago when it interacted with a Kaiba Corporation computer.”

“Now Black, has Kaiba Corporation said anything about this? Because having a life support computer fail is a very dangerous situation to experience.”

“Yeah... Unfortunately Kaiba Corporation didn’t address the issue about the life support computer Narc. If anything, they’re making allegations that someone from Mars has actually stolen some important coding from their latest project. That said project was what brought Kaiba Corporation to Mars in the first place.”

BZZT!

“Welcome to M.T.N. the Martian Television Network. I’m Marvin Mel Blanc and I’ll be your host tonight. Well folks it appears that there was quite a riot on the Marathon yesterday morning when two unauthorized Earthborns were found in a rather critical place-”

BZZT!

“Should Earthborns even be allowed near Martian technology? We all know how spoiled and wasteful they are with their own planet’s resources. Just look at what they have done to the Earth during twenty first century! The Martians have survived with careful recycling and ingenuity! The Earthborns don’t know the constant trials and fears we have to go through!”

BZZT!

“The Marathon is UESC property! Built with money from Earth! Since when did Martians have any control over who steps onboard the ship?”

BZZT!

Calvin turned off his Tacpad’s screen with a sigh. Behind him, Konoko snorted humorlessly.

“It’s all over the news.” She reported glumly. “And it is feeding the frenzy. What were once political marches and picket lines are now turning into riots and looting of UESC buildings.”

“Great.” drawled out Calvin in exaggeration. He stretched out a long leg and kicked a piece of scrap metal across the ground. 

Although this place was called a Recycling Center, it was more like a sloppily organized landfill. It was packed with anything the Martians have no use for but were reluctant to abandon completely. Usually during the day a few homeless vagabonds would scavenge the area in hopes of finding something of value. But during the night the center was usually empty as a tomb.

Calvin and Konoko decided to take advantage of this desolate part of Freehold to hold their meeting. For the last month, Konoko had been combing through all the personal that had traveled regularly from the Icarus Asteroid to Mars and back again. As well as narrow down the amount of people that would visit Freehold as well as the clinic that Morty stole from.

Calvin hoped that this visit would provide information on who their mysterious drug thief/MIDA friend. Sadly, this latest crisis onboard the Marathon has taken top priority for both the UESC and ONI. Racial tensions were building everywhere on Mars and it felt like an explosion was due to go off at any minute.

“I do have a personal favorite.” Konoko murmured as she scrolled through her Tacpad’s contents. “Here. Take a look at this. Spooks had to confiscate this one.”

Calvin peered down and winced at the contents on the screen. There stood a small mob of angry Martian scientists and construction workers. They were all yelling angrily at the doors to that led to the three main A.I. cores onboard the Marathon. But one familiar voice rose out among the crowd and temporarily silenced the group. “I don’t care what you bastards say! The lady said that we needed to fix it. And we fixed it! If you have trouble understanding that, call Leela! Now let us pass!”

The image jerked zoomed in onto the front of the crowd and refocused sloppily. Calvin realized that this recording had to come from one of the angry Martian’s Tacpads. The Security Officer was about to make a remark on how Spooks was able to confiscate this without starting another riot, but he hesitated when he saw the first of the two Earthborns pinned by the angry mob at the A.I. core’s doorway. “Muller?” Calvin breathed in disbelief.

“You know him?” Konoko asked curiously. She raised her hand to temporally freeze the recoded scene on her Tacpad.

“Sorta… Earthborn UESC soldier. He’s a bit of an ass to my brother and me.” Calvin admitted. Then he paused in memory. “I think he harassed Durandal too. That’s why my brother taught Durandal to do that ‘flip the bird’ trick.”

Konoko laughed. “No way! He somehow convinced a dumb A.I. to flip people off?”

Calvin frowned at her. “I don’t think he’s dumb.” He scolded quietly. “He’s just…” The Security Officer bit his lip in contemplation. “I think he’s just restrained… and uneducated. It’s weird. Durandal’s just a machine, I know, but it feels like we’re dealing with something more.”

He trailed off, not knowing how else to explain how he felt about the strange, story loving, A.I.. Calvin gave brief glance over to where Konoko was standing. He was expecting the sharp-tongued Earthborn to tease him for his feelings over a computer. Instead, she just looked sad and a little lonely. “Shinatama.” She whispered softly in prayer.

Calvin winced and looked away. Konoko rarely ever talked about her past. But in the few rare times, usually during a drunken stupor, the proud woman would allude to a long history of loss. The Security Officer scratched the back of his head and offered, “So… Uh… Does that video have anything else that makes it a favorite of yours?”

“Huh? Oh yeah.” Konoko tapped her Tacpad to resume the video. The jerky images once again came to life. Angry grumbles and murmurs came from the Martian crowd but one voice very calmly and very clearly overcame them all.

“I understand your argument Captain Volker Von Muller. But you must understand. The young woman standing behind you was present when President Kaiba made his grand… ‘display’ with the three A.I.s. And then shortly afterwards, the A.I. responsible for life support on this ship was infected with a virus!”

The speaker was none other than Bernhard Strauss. Calvin breathed in sharply in recognition of the scientist. Konoko gave Calvin a worried glance but said nothing as the video kept on playing.

The future Science Director continued talking in a calm reasonable voice. However his approach was anything but calm. It was sinister. Like a snake, hunting down its prey. Strauss’ words only egged on the angry Martian workers as if he was waving a red flag before a herd of bulls. “Captain Muller if there is one thing I don’t believe in, it is coincidences.”

The crowd swelled. Angry shouts of agreement were heard throughout the mob. Strauss conducted them like a maestro before an orchestra. “And I find it very hard to believe that the woman behind you is innocent of aiding President Kaiba infect the computer with the virus! After all, how could she of possibly known that the A.I. was experiencing trouble and needed to be repaired?”

Everyone was nodding in agreement to Strauss’ words. Even Calvin found the logic sound. But this was Strauss. And if there was one person that his older brother hated more than Muller, it was Strauss. Calvin decided to trust Jason’s instincts and waited to see what Muller did next.

Ever hotheaded and impulsive, Muller did not disappoint. “I don’t give a fuck about your conspiracy theories! The reason why we’re here is classified! So all of you get back! Where are the damn security guards?”

The crowd obviously did not take kindly to Muller’s words or his threat of security. They surged even closer. Muller sneered at them but held his ground. A figure behind him moved slightly and Muller reached back to hold them in place. Oddly enough this gesture was done in a kindly way. As if he was trying to protect the person behind him.

Calvin peered closer at the screen. There was something familiar about the figure behind Muller. But before he could get a good look however, the mob went into a riot like frenzy. The camera that was recording the video bounced and trembled violently as the masses came ever closer to Captain Muller. The UESC soldier finally had enough and pulled out a taser gun.

That quieted the group down. With a low growl the Captain addressed the masses. “Look. I don’t give a shit about what you people think of me. So what if I’m an Earthborn? I’m not the one responsible for your problems. You hate your life so much? Then get the hell out of your holes and start actually terraforming the goddamn planet! You had so many years to do it after all! What the hell are you all doing hiding down there? Picking your nose? Wiping your ass? Heh! Who am I kidding? You keep crying like babies for the Earth to wipe your asses!”

During Muller’s ranting, his body shifted slightly enough that Calvin could finally see who was standing behind the outraged Captain. But before he could comment, Konoko turned her Tacpad off. “That’s the last of it.” She reported. “The security team came in shortly afterward and broke the group up. I gotta say though. Your friend is not a people person.”

“Muller’s not my friend.” Calvin hissed angrily and pointed at the darken Tacpad. “But Ms. Eddings is! What is she doing there among those people?”

Konoko’s eyes widen in surprise at his outburst. “Whoa. Calm down. She was the second Earthborn that was there. Remember? And apparently she’s a member of the Office of Naval Intelligence.”

Calvin froze. A strange feeling of betrayal rippled through him. “She’s ONI? What… She never told me…”

“Of course she can’t tell you. If her Section is different from ours, then everything she does is considered classified.” Konoko reasonably offered. “We’re in Section One. Intelligence gathering. According to Spooks, there are four Sections of ONI and none of them are aware of what the other three are doing at any given time. She could be Section Zero or Section Three.”

The Security Officer let out a rude snort. “Not Section Two?” he asked. He tried to voice his question in humor, but it came out more bitter than he intended.

Konoko, bless her, tried to smile for him anyway. “Propaganda? Sure! Why not? After all, her choice to have Muller piss off every single Martian on this planet was a great way to inspire peace for everyone!”

Calvin laughed, or rather he tried to. His heart just wasn’t in to it. Why did everyone insist on keeping secrets from him? His older brother always kept secrets from him to protect him. And that habit never went away as they got older. The government always kept secrets from him, despite the fact he’d tried so hard to do everything right by the people. Now this… 

A simple innocent Earthborn girl that fell out of the sky and was nice enough to care about some crazy computer… Who would sit beside him at lunch, smile that pretty smile, and enjoy his silly King Arthur stories… And she kept secrets from Calvin too…

He clenched his hands into fists. Tried desperately to be calm despite feeling that whatever he was doing was never going to be good enough. That everyone saw him as the weak sickly child that needed to be rescued. He let out a long puff of air as if he was exhaling smoke from his lungs. 

Konoko eyed him warily. “You okay partner?” She offered. “I think I see some garbage over there that could use some punching if you’re up to it.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.” Calvin replied tiredly. The anger was now subsiding and leaving the man with an exhausted feeling. He was just ‘done’ with this day. Hell, for this entire week. “Did the Martian government actually press charges?” he asked.

“No. Of course not. Leela was monitoring the entire thing through Captain Muller and was the A.I. to administer the antivirus programming. Spooks was also watching from the shadows and gave the girl the permit to go onboard the Marathon. By law, neither of them did anything wrong and should be considered heroes for fixing the life support. But…” Konoko let out a sigh.

“They’re Earthborns.” Calvin finished.

“Yep.”

“Great…” Calvin dragged his hand through his dirty blond hair. “How’s Earth handling that?”

Konoko gave him an odd look. “They’re not. Remember? They got more important things to worry about right now.”

“What?” The boy scrunched his face up in confusion. “What could be more important than this?”

An exasperated groan came from the spiky haired girl’s lips. With a scowl, she began to reprogram her Tacpad to show Calvin the latest news off planet. “You really need to look at what is happening outside of Mars.” She scolded. “Sometimes the universe doesn’t revolve around the red planet.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Shut up and pay attention.”

With an easy flip of her wrist, the Tacpad was shoved into Calvin’s direction. The Security Officer frowned as he watched huge city buildings crumble and fall to the ground. Homes beside the ocean being destroyed by a massive wave of water. Hundreds of people gathering in shelters. Tiny children being fed soup and receiving medical aid.

Calvin sucked in a sharp breath. “What is this?” He asked in disbelief.

“Earthquake.” Konoko replied flatly. “Big one. In the Gulf of Mexico. It happened probably thirteen hours before the Earthborns were discovered onboard the Marathon. It is all that Earth is concerned over and I can see why. The earthquake destroyed a good deal of the cities all along the Chicxulub crater and what’s worse is the tidal wave that followed. A lot of islands among the Caribbean are without food or power right now. The North, Central, and South American coast line suffered as well but they at least have their respective continents to back them up.”

“Shit.” Calvin rubbed his eyes as the images continued playing. People were being dug out of rubble. Most of them were dead. Streets and buildings flooded from the ocean and refugees trying to paddle through the waterlogged towns on tiny boats. People crying as they desperately tried to find their lost loved ones. “What causes this?” The Security Officer asked.

Konoko lifted a shoulder in a half hearted shrug. “Plate tectonics I guess. It happens more commonly up in the North near Iceland as well as all along the Pacific Ocean coastline. The Ring of Fire, I think they call it. Just be glad that Mars has a dead core instead of a molten one like Earth does. Or your underground cities would have been crushed a long time ago. It could also be the Ah Puch…”

At Calvin’s questioning glance, she elaborated. “Ah Puch, the Mayan god of death and destruction. The locals believed that they heard maniacal laughter all along the Yucatan Peninsula’s coastline when the earth trembled and the sea swelled. They say it was their God’s vengeance for when his pyramid was destroyed in the twentieth century.”

Calvin snorted. “Sounds like ancient gibberish to me. I’ll settle for the moving crust theory-”

BANG!!!

Both Konoko and Calvin whirled around and watched with amazement as one of the giant towers of trash slowly crumbled to the ground. For a second, the two stared at each other in hushed bewilderment. Then they were off. Running wildly through the piles of garbage to see what had caused the collapse and to help any that may have been caught up in the rubble.

*  
*  
*

It didn’t take them too long to reach the heart of the mess. Calvin and Konoko both slowed down as they took in the damage. Oddly enough the destruction wasn’t too bad. Only one tower fell and it didn’t affect the other gigantic heaps of garbage or cause harm to the recycling centers that also populated the landfill.

It took a while for the ONI spies to look through the dust that had risen up from the collapse. But when they did, they could see the heart of the problem. A lone garbage truck sat idling near the base of the crumpled tower. Apparently the huge vehicle had rammed the base.

“The hell?” Konoko asked as she took in the strange sight. “Did Freehold’s Superintendent malfunction or something? That computer knows better than to drive the garbage trucks into towers of trash.”

“I don’t know…” Calvin stared at the trucks flickering headlights. “It’s strange… Nothing else was damaged. Almost as if the hit was deliberate. Can a computer willingly want to cause a mess?”

“Ah-Choo!”

“Bless you.” Calvin replied without thinking. Then, he tensed, as a figure slowly emerged from the darkness while dragging a large heavy object behind them.

“Thanks. You did an awesome job back there! Both the angle and the hit were perfect! And you say you’re not a Smart A.I.. All you needed was the measurements of my height, the measurements of my shadow, and the measurements of the garbage tower’s shadow. And wham! Perfect! A Smart A.I. couldn’t do any better!” A familiar voice replied as they neared the garbage truck. 

The shadowy figure tilted their head to quietly listen to a voice that only they could hear. “Oh hush!” They replied in a scolding tone. “I told you I would help you out! And that’s what I’m gonna do.” Another pause as they listen on their radio, only to whirl around to see Konoko and Calvin approaching them. The shadowy figure seemed to perk up, as if they were happy to see them. “Hey guys! Wanna help?”

Calvin cleared his throat. Both the familiarity of the voice as well as the dust from the mess made it hard for the Security Officer to talk. Thankfully, Konoko seemed to have an easier time introducing herself. “We’re the UESC Security Forces!” she commanded in a strong clear voice. “State your name and your purpose for being here!”

The figure dropped their heavy load and raised both hands up in the air. “Woah! Easy guys, I thought it was okay to recycle anything we found here.”

“Within regulations.” Konoko replied tersely. “First, scavengers must come here in pairs for safety. And secondly, the pairs rarely knock over garbage towers just to get what they want.”

There was a strange pause. It once again gave Calvin the feeling that the figure was listening to another voice that he and Konoko couldn’t hear. But the stranger recovered quickly enough to respond to Konoko’s questions. “Sorry about the mess. But if you look at the Clovis Bray field reports, I do have authorization to destroy this tower at this time period. No one was injured and the destruction will allow more scrappers the opportunity to recycle what was fallen from the tower.”

It was an oddly mechanical answer. Almost as if the figure was reciting a report. Konoko gave a sniff in disdain at the reply. “And your partner? Safety regulations require two people in scavenging the Recycling Center.” She challenged.

The shadowy figure made a gesture to the garbage truck. Their actions were caught in the flickering headlights and Calvin could finally see who the shadowed figure was. “My partner is right there.” The woman answered while pointing at the vehicle.

“Miss Eddings?” Calvin finally managed to croak out. “What are you doing here?”

“Calvin.” Hissed Konoko but it was too late.

“Why are you working for ONI? Why did you choose Muller, of all people, to help you? And why didn’t you tell me!?!” Like the breaking of a damn, the minute the questions started Calvin couldn’t stop asking.

Eddings flinched. Her body was once again encased in shadows. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to… There wasn’t much time… I…” The girl stuttered to a stop, took a deep breath, and tried again. “I just needed to help Durandal. I didn’t have much time and Muller was there even though I didn’t want him to be.”

“But ONI?” Calvin roared.

“Calvin!” snapped Konoko. “She’s in a different Section. It’s classified!”

The Security Officer gestured angrily. “She’s a civilian.” He bitterly reported the one thing that made him trust Eddings from the beginning.

“Civilians are allowed to work for ONI as well.” Konoko muttered dryly. “I don’t like it but it is easier to gather information if the person doesn’t scream military.” The spiky haired Asian gave Calvin a pointed look.

“Whatever.” The dirty blond grumbled. He was getting tired of secrets. He marched up towards Eddings to grab her hand. “Let’s get you home. Something tells me you’re not supposed to be here and I rather not have another Martian Versus Earth headline show up on the news.”

Just as he was about to reach her, Eddings flinched away. A low rumble came from the garbage truck and the vehicle actually lurched towards Calvin. The Security Officer jumped backwards with a yelp and Eddings held up a hand to the truck. The machine halted and Calvin was finally able to get a good look at the girl while she stood in the headlights.

“What the… Who hit you?” Calvin asked in dismay. There partially hidden by her hair, which was worn differently from normal, stood one ugly looking bruise on her forehead.

Eddings shrugged bitterly. “Does it matter?” she asked. “Just another Martian Versus Earth headline you don’t want to read.”

“So they got you too.” Konoko murmured sadly. Calvin turned around to look at her in confusion. Konoko rolled her eyes and pulled up the sleeve to her right arm. There, a large ugly bruise and a hand print showed up on her tan skin. “Some bastard Martians thought to teach an Earthborn like me a lesson when I went down the wrong ally way. This whole mess has everyone riled up on the planet.”

Konoko walked over to get a better look at Eddings and then she glanced at the garbage truck. “Let me guess… Public transportation?”

The auburn haired girl looked away. “The subway trains aren’t fun to ride anymore.” She admitted.

“Where are the police?” yelled Calvin. He winced at the bruises on his partner and turned to look at Eddings again. “What the hell is going on here?”

“If the Police are Martian, they’re not going to interfere!” Konoko pointed out reasonably. “Hell they’ll probably arrest the Earthborn for protecting themselves.”

Bile rose up in Calvin’s throat. He clenched his hands tightly in hopes to contain his anger. “I’m sorry.” He uttered to Eddings. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m not like those assholes. And I really want to help you.”

“Thank you… and I’m really sorry.” Eddings offered quietly. “After living with my cousins on the farm… I’m used to doing things on my own. I’m not used to people offering help.”

Calvin smiled weakly. “Friends?” he offered his hand.

The girls eyes watered but her voice remained firm as she took Calvin’s hand. “Friends.” She answered quietly.

Konoko sighed loudly behind them. “Man! You guys are so overdramatic. Now that you’re all buddy buddy again, can you answer me one question?”

Calvin and Eddings looked at Konoko in open bemusement.

Konoko gestured towards the garbage truck impatiently. “Who the hell is driving the truck?”

“Oh. It’s Durandal.” Eddings replied innocently.

Both Konoko and Calvin stared bug-eyed at Eddings.

“DURANDAL???”

*  
*  
*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
> *
> 
> Apparently Calvin and Konoko don’t know that Durandal can drive yet! ^_^ Happy Spring everyone!


	17. Children of the Eldritch Gods

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*

Spacer bars were always a bit of a novelty to Jason Revenant. He wasn’t quite sure what it was that set the mood for these establishments. Perhaps it was the fact that the bar itself served more food than alcohol for the weary space truck drivers that ferried goods from Earth to Venus, to Mars, to the Asteroid belt, and to the Jovian Moons. Or perhaps it was the fact that the Spacers created a small family like community for themselves considering how hard their jobs were.

Whatever the case was, Jason always felt himself at home at these bars despite the fact it was above ground. Not that Jason wanted to be above ground per say. But Clovis Bray was having a field day due to the press asking about Mars’ future with terraforming. Now the old man was obsessed with growing more plants in Freehold city. And that obsession has become Jason’s current nightmare job.

Which was fine. Of course it was fine. Who didn’t want the chance to grow trees all over the city? A goddamn above ground city that was filled with the rich elite of society, a city that was so full of buildings and concrete that there was no room to actually give the trees a chance to grow! With a curse Jason rubbed his face. He could only stomach so much of the Earthborn UESC stupidity before he wanted to shoot himself. 

With a sigh, the elder brother thunked his head against the cool plastic of the bar. At least this place had people he could understand. They were people that were more on his level even if they insisted on having their bars above ground. Jason grunted and glanced to his side. His glass tumbler was empty again and Jason briefly debated if he really wanted to get drunk tonight.

“Warriors, torchbearers, come redeem our dreams.  
Shine a light, upon this night, of otherworldly fiends.  
Odin’s might, be your guide, divorce you from the sane.  
Hammer’s way, will have its say, rise up in their name.”

The rock music was loud, pounding, and strangely soothing to Jason’s poor nerves. He has heard this song many times already but it never got old for him. The elder brother still was suffering a minor headache from that favor he did for Theo a couple of days ago. Stupid debt. Hopefully the migraine was worth it. At least Cels was happy, unlike Jason.

Being around uppity Earthborns didn’t help his mood much either. More like it made his shoulders twitch and his inner street rat to scream in frustration over the fact that Jason wasn’t running or hiding like he should be. Old habits die hard and Jason didn’t like being out in the open or above ground.

Jason flagged down the bartender with a groan. His brain wouldn’t shut up! He couldn’t stop thinking and just relax for a while. This definitely called for more alcohol.

“Your eyes are glowing.”

With a curse Jason slapped his hand over his left eye. He turned around sharply and nearly fell off his barstool, much to Cayden A Sé’s amusement.

“Oh man! You should have seen your face! Ha! Ha! Wow! You are really out of it! What happened to you?” The tall lanky man easily swung his leg over the empty stool near Jason and made himself comfortable at the bar.

“Fuck you Cayde!” growled Jason as he righted himself. Hesitantly, he lowered his hand from his face and was relieved to not see red. “That was not funny.”

“You’re right.” Cayde nodded solemnly as if in deep thought. “It was hilarious!”

Jason didn’t bother giving Cayde the amusement of answering. Instead the dark skinned man tried to summon the bartender again. Thankfully he was more successful this time. They both made their orders and settled with their respective drinks.

“So…” Cayde began after a few quiet minutes of sipping his horribly green concoction. “You didn’t answer my question. What happened to you?”

A tired sigh was the only response newcomer got. In reality Jason held no hostility to Cayde. He’s had interactions with the man before when Jason was still a street rat. Memories of a cocky teenager that like to gamble with not only his money but with his life sprang to Jason’s mind. As a starving child, Jason was in awe with the way that Cayde lived.

The elder man was something of a legend to the street rats of Mars, the one rare case of an orphan who not only survived but made enough money to buy a ship and fly to the stars. Cayde was a well known Spacer that not only traded between the settled colonies of the UESC, but would also do odd security jobs for the big leagues. A jack of all trades but master of none, Jason could relate to that.

Still it didn’t mean that Jason was going to give up all his secrets to his old acquaintance. “I’m drinking at a bar that is above the surface Cayde.” Jason finally grumbled out. “What did you think happened to me?”

Cayde let out a snort. “Yeah. I can see that making you twitchy, but not oblivious. You actually didn’t expect me to show up.” He stretched out a long leg to push at Jason’s stool, nearly causing the smaller man to fall over again. 

When Jason managed to steady himself he glared at Cayde’s knowing grin. “I’ve just had a lot to do this week. A job for Theo came up.” Jason unconsciously rubbed his left eye before realizing what he was doing and stopped.

“Ah… The debt. I almost forgot about that.” Cayde nodded and returned to that weird neon green drink he liked. “Have you at least introduced your brother to Cels yet?”

There was nothing but silence from Jason’s end of the bar.

Cayde swore and slammed his tumbler onto the plastic with a loud thud. “Seriously? You haven’t told him yet? What is wrong with you?”

“Shut up!” Jason hissed and then pasted an apologetic smile at the frowning bartender. When that didn’t advert the man’s gaze, Jason added a friendly wave. The bartender continued to glower at Jason and Cayde for a long minute before he went back to cleaning glasses.

Cayde shook his head. “Look, I know it’s not my place. But you seriously need to talk to your brother. I remember how you two were when you were kids. Thick as thieves and all that shit. Everyone thought you were crazy for taking him on when you could barely feed yourself. But you managed.”

Jason remained quiet.

“Anyways.” Cayde continued, “You’re brother is grown ass man now. You don’t need to protect him anymore. Tell him about the debt. Tell him about Cels. Hell! Tell him something! I shouldn’t know more about this shit than he does.” Cayde shook his head in disgust. 

A painful croak came from Cayde’s side. It took the taller man a second to recognize the sound as Jason’s voice. “Heh… The only reason you know anything is because I ran into you after Doc Phineus died.”

“Yeah…” Boy was that a memory Cayde didn’t want to remember. Not that he could ever forget the sight of two teenage boys dressed up in hospital gowns running down the street on bare feet. Or rather one of them was running. Calvin was completely out of it and was as limp as a rag doll. The younger brother was already growing his long limbs at that time and poor Jason had stopped getting bigger since he was eleven. Still, with the determination of a possessed older brother, Jason was still able to half carry half drag Calvin across the street with the speed of a condemned man chassed by a demon from hell.

Cayde shuddered and quickly picked up his drink. He wasn’t an expert on quantum physics, but he knew that the red and white stains on the boys’ gowns were not part of the science. Nor the strange flower petals that stubbornly remained stuck to their bare feet. Still… Jason never did tell him what happened. Only that Dr. Phineus was now dead, and Jason was in debt to some guy named Theo. And there was a girl named Cels that Jason liked too. Not much to go on… And Cayde couldn’t help but worry over his fellow street rat.

Silence fell over the two men. The bar continued on as Spacers eagerly told daring tales about the asteroid belt. Shared jokes about the colonies on Uranus. The music remained cheerful with its rock music varying from one century to another. When Whirling Death Spikes started to sing ‘Big Blue Orchids and Wild Blueberries’ Jason decided to speak up. “How’s Ace?”

It was painfully obvious that he was trying to change the subject and Cayde, like any proud parent, enjoyed gloating over his kid. “Ace? Ace is awesome! Just awesome! Just wrote another letter.” Cayde finished his drink thoughtfully. “Birthday is coming up. The mom and I are pooling together to get some good presents this year. Do you know what the newest fad that the young people are getting into right now?”

Jason shrugged apologetically. The smaller man didn’t spend much time with children to know what their current interests were.

Cayde sighed glumly at Jason’s response. “Ah… We’ll figure it out. Money’s going to be tight though. Probably take a few odd jobs from Clovis Bray to help.”

THUNK!!!

Now it was Cayde’s turn to nearly fall off his barstool. He squawked awkwardly and managed to get his bearings. The bartender glared daggers at the two men but was too busy with other customers to come over just yet. Cayde took this borrowed moment to stare at Jason.

The elder Revenant brother had slammed his face into the bar with enough speed and force to warp the plastic. It was clear that Jason was in pain. He clutched to the sides of his head, his teeth were grinding and his eyes remained screwed closed. For a long minute Cayde watched the younger man before whispering cautiously. “Hey man. You okay? Because… You’re starting to scare me here.”

“Headache.” Jason managed to grit out. He slowly started to sit upwards again. His eyes remained shut however and his hand curled around the left side of his head protectively. “Bad dreams.” Jason continued. “Don’t… Don’t work for Clovis Bray…”

Cayde frowned at Jason’s odd muttering. “What? You don’t want me to work for Clovis Bray?” The elder man let out a snort. “Now that’s just ridiculous. You know that the only money from here to Saturn comes from Clovis Bray.”

“Don’t… care…” Jason hissed. He managed to open his right eye and Cayde could see that the normally silver orb was bloodshot. The elder man winced sympathetically. Just how bad was this headache?

“Promise…” Jason panted. “Promise me that you won’t work for Clovis Bray.”

“Kid…” Cayde sighed.

“Promise!” Jason insisted.

Cayde hated promises. He hated the fact that he always tried to keep his promises even when things turned sour. In fact, keeping promises never ended well for him. Therefore when the bartender finally showed up Cayde was more than happy to address the surly man and avoid Jason’s demands. “Anything wrong sir?”

“Yeah… You two are getting cut off right now. You boys have had enough. Him especially.” The bartender pointed at Jason who was still nursing the left side of his head. “Now get the hell out of my bar.”

“Yes sir! Right away Sir!” Cayde gave the Bartender a jaunty salute before trying to pull a very grumpy Jason out of his seat.

“Nooooo… I’m not drunk enough to make the pain go away.” Jason whined miserably.

“Sorry bud. Time to take you back home to your brother.” With a few more tugs Cayde managed to drag a very reluctant Jason away from the bar and steer the smaller man towards the doors. “Speaking of which… Where is your brother anyway? He usually pops up to collect your sorry ass whenever you’re stupid enough to get shit-faced.”

“Mmmm…” Jason hummed as he weaved through the tables. Despite the alcohol and the fact that one of his hands was still covering his left eye, the dark skinned man was able to navigate steadily through the crowd. He did have to stop near the restroom however. Swaying slightly, he worked the controls on the water fountain and splashed cold water over his face.

Cayde watched with relief when it appeared that Jason was sobering up a bit. It sucked when you have to drag a drunken friend home. It sucked even more when that friend throws up on you. Thankfully it looked like Jason really was suffering from a headache and not alcohol poisoning.

When Jason felt human enough to remove his hand and open his left eye, Cayde saw it as his cue to continue leaving the bar. Jason kept walking without complaint. In fact, his next words even surprised the Spacer. “Calvin is out with his girlfriend coworker and they’re keeping military secrets from me.” Jason confided to Cayde in a hushed whisper. “He’s a true Revenant.”

That the name was pure bogus and Cayde knew it. He was there when Jason plucked that word out of thin air in order to file out the employment papers at Clovis Bray’s Dust Palace. Why on earth would Jason choose the name ‘Revenant’ Cayde never bothered to learn. But strange names really didn’t matter in the end when it came to family. Cayde snorted at the happy bemused pride that radiating off of the smaller man. “Huh! Sounds like he’s following in your footsteps then.” He patted Jason on the back.

The smaller man scowled up at him. “No! Cal’s good. Like pure good. Pure light good. He’s not like me. He’s nothing like me. And he’s gonna stay that way.”

“Okay! Okay! I get it!” and Cayde did get it. Last thing he wanted was for his little Ace to become a gambling Spacer like him.

Jason calmed down and headed towards the door once more. “He’s doing good things.” He insisted quietly. “He’s gonna be the best of us. Theo promised… He’s gonna… Shit!”

Cayde paused at the alarmed disbelief that crossed Jason’s features. “What’s wrong?”

A shaking hand pointed over to where the bouncer was manning the door. “Please tell me you’re not seeing what I’m seeing!” Jason yelped.

The taller man straitened out to take in the scene. All in all, it wasn’t an unusual sight. Some random kid wanted to go into the bar. A youth that desperately wanted to be cool and treated like an adult. The bouncer, of course, was having none of it and was politely but firmly pushing the kid away. Cayde frowned however as he took in the kid’s features. The shape of the nose, the color of his hair, the cleft on the chin…

No…

No fucking way…

“Shit!” Cayde echoed.

“Damnit!” Jason pulled out his Tacpad from his hoodie’s pockets. Strapped the thing onto his wrist and began to call the Dust Palace. He was expecting to get Leela, or at least the UESC security team that constantly worked there. Instead he got.

“Tycho.”

“So displeased to hear from me?” The A.I. responded dryly. “May I remind you that your report on the soil’s response to the tree planting was due three hours ago?”

“Tyke now is not the time.” Jason groaned in exasperation. His headache was skyrocketing to full blown migraine. “I put the trees into the dirt and watered it. You want my report on the soil? Here’s my report. It’s fucking mud! Now, please activate all the cameras around my signal and get Leela on this please!”

“Activate the… Are you at a bar? I’m not allowing you to abuse the cameras again just so you can show off how many donuts can be hung on your body.”

Cayde gave Jason a long hard look at that comment.

Jason blushed. “I was really really drunk that time okay?”

“Right…” Cayde drawled that word out like a death sentence. “Sure… Okay…”

“Who was that?” Tycho asked curiously.

“Cayden A Sé.” Cayde answered calmly into the Tacpad. “And I can safely assure you that Jason is fully clothed right now. Or else I wouldn’t even stand near the guy… No offense dude. I just don’t swing that way.” Cayde quickly added at Jason’s glower.

“Whatever. My body is gorgeous. You’re just jealous.” The smaller man grumbled.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Cayde replied and then swore darkly as the bouncer forced the kid to walk away from the door. “Hey Mister Tyke dude? I would really activate the cameras around this area pronto! This is a Clovis Bray security matter that needs to be addressed!”

“A Clovis Bray security matter that involves a bar… I really find that hard… to… believe…” The A.I.’s harsh tone quieted for a long agonizing second then he barked over the Tacpad’s tiny speakers. “Do not allow him to leave your sight! I’m alerting the UESC security team now!”

It shouldn’t be allowed, a computer ordering a human around. But with Jason, following Tycho’s commands became almost second nature after he first started working for Clovis Bray. First with, “Sir, please don’t set that on fire.” Then to, “Mister Revenant, just because the fruit is a cherry does not mean you should implement an explosive device within it.” And now it’s just, “Jason. No.”

Jason let out a breathless laugh but quickly ran out the doors. Tycho may be a spoilsport but he was still the master over science and engineering. And that meant it was always within Jason’s best interest to follow Tycho’s orders if he didn’t want to be blown up.

The above ground city’s sidewalks were not very crowded during this time of night. Jason darted around various bodies and fire hydrants with ease of once being a street rat. Cayde followed just a few paces behind him. The man’s long legs allowing an easy loping grace to his movements. In short time they were able to find the kid near a busy street’s crosswalk.

“Hey! Kid!” Jason called out. With a jerk, the small dark skinned man was able to quickly take off his light blue hoodie and toss at the surprised kid’s face. “Put that on now!” Jason snapped angrily, he was in full blown big brother mode and he didn’t care. “And cover your face!”

“Who are you?” yelped the kid. He threw the hoodie onto the ground and backed away towards the city street. The traffic was still going at full speed so the kid was stuck at the sidewalk’s edge. “And why should I wear that old thing? It looks disgusting.”

“Clovis Bray Junior.” Cayde announced slowly. The firstborn child of the most powerful man in Mars flinched at his own name. “Why the hell are you out here without your bodyguards?” asked Cayde.

“Kid, put the hoodie on now before you’re kidnapped or sniped or something.” Jason added. His street rat instincts were screaming at all the wrong this image presented him. Too open. No place to hide. Too many people. This was not a safe place to be. “Just put that on and wait for the UESC Security to come okay?” the elder brother pleaded.

“UESC Security? You called my dad?” The boy’s face twisted into a look of panic and rage.

“Yeah… Sorry kid.” Cayde replied. “It sucks. I know it sucks. Being the son of a famous guy makes it hard to run around and do normal fun things that children your age should be doing… But you really need to keep yourself safe right now.” Cayde picked up the discarded hoodie and presented it towards the grimacing child that couldn’t be older then twelve possibly thirteen years of age. “That means put this on and wait for Security. Your dad can hire some better bodyguards and maybe something fun can come out of this. Yeah?”

The boy hissed. “Don’t treat me like a kid. You think dad is just gonna pat me on the head and offer ice cream? I’m tired of being locked in rooms and being lectured on the family business!” The kid tossed the hoodie back at Jason. “I don’t care if my dad is Clovis Bray. I’m gonna party tonight and you jerks aren’t going to stop me.”

BANG!!!

The crosswalk sign above them exploded into shards of glass and sparking wires. People shrieked and ran away from the street. Both Jason and Cayde knew the sounds of gun fire well enough to plant themselves face down into the concrete. The first born son of Clovis Bray stood stupidly on his feet however, his face pale in fear.

Jason turned his head to the side to see what had captured the kid’s attention. There, in the gloom of a darkened alleyway, shuffled a massive figure holding a gun. The stranger adjusted his aim towards the terrified child, his dull grey eyes glinting in the bleak streetlight. “Target acquired.” The figured announced in a flat dead voice.

BANG!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
> *  
> Whew! I can’t believe everything that has happened this month! Family… Job… Marvel has proceeded to break my heart and Bungie has me screaming in joy. I knew that Clovis Bray had claimed ownership of the Ice Caps! Who called it? ME!!!
> 
> In any case Cayde has made his appearance! Yay! And Jason is having a bad week.
> 
> The song that is presented in the story is “Children of the Elder Gods” by Poets of the Fall. This song is really poplar in the Alan Wake game.


	18. Grains of Sand

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Isn’t it interesting what simple grains of sand can do?  
They can measure time within an hourglass.  
They can tip the scales between victory and defeat.  
They can be vexing when they get within our clothing.  
They are constantly being beaten out of the gym bags.  
And finally,  
When melted,  
They can be shaped into a Vault of Glass.

 

*  
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[Entry number XXXX]

7 A.M.  
Arrived at the Dust Palace seven minutes before the hour. Traffic was terrible as always. Probably would of arrived sooner but due to my excursions on the Marathon, I have unfortunately developed a minor cold. I will need to booster my immune system later for when the Marathon launches.

7:05 A.M.  
Found out that I forgot to shut off the W.C.S. program and it continued to operate all throughout the night. No apparent damage was done to Subject 1707. Obtained coffee and breakfast from the staff lounge. Footage from the riot on the Marathon was still being shown in the local news. Already can see the lines forming between the Earthborn scientists that were privileged to work for Clovis Bray and the hard working Martians that nearly killed themselves just to gain a job in the same position. Their reactions to the staff lounge’s holoscreen would be amusing if I didn’t have this cough…

9 A.M.  
Ran tests on Subject 1707’s memory banks that were under the influence of the Murder_of_Crows virus. Evidence points to severe degradation of multiple vector processors within its core. This is an acceptable loss. Three hundred years is a long time for the A.I. to be unsupervised on the Marathon. If my plans are to succeed, I need Subject 1707 to operate at minimum capabilities within that time period. Last thing I need is for it to discover it’s a Smart A.I. while I’m still asleep.

10:25 A.M.  
Had to pause in my work due to the ruckus the elder Revenant brother was making. Apparently he doesn’t approve of growing trees within a city. As much as it disturbs me, I actually agree with him. There is no room to grow such frivolous plant life on the surface city streets. Martians would benefit better if Clovis Bray would approve of building more Oxygen tanks to supply the population should the environmental barrier falls. I’ll take this time to obtain more tissues.

10:30 A.M  
Office is still busy due to Revenant’s little episode. Answered mail and updated test results on the latest SRS66C-S2AM for MIDA. Apparently the gas used in the triggering mechanism is causing the Sniper Rifle to explode. Need to rectify the blueprints to further encase the gas chamber. 

Still have 13 hours of surveillance video to study during Subject 1707’s virus laden state as well as the additional two hours that occurred when Subject 1707 interfered with President Kaiba’s ego stroking. The computer is rarely disobedient, but that woman was present… Both during Kaiba’s display as well as the A.I.’s recovery of the virus. 

I do not believe in coincidences. 

She needs to be dealt with. But until I have a firm understanding of ‘who’ she is, I must wait and gather information through the surveillance videos. Sadly the staff is still agitated due to Jason Revenant’s ranting and the nosey busybodies keep poking into my cubicle. My coughing fits only draw more of them in. They’re constantly whishing me well and offering inane advice on how to take care of myself. Watching videos will have to wait until things have calmed down. Apparently the elder Revenant brother can vex me even when he’s not around.

11:45 A.M.  
The mucus within my head has given me a headache. Ran a scan over Subject 1707’s CPU usage. No remarkable results. Decided to run tests involving paradoxes on the tensor processing unit. As predicted, this created a near system crash on Subject 1707’s core. After rebooting it, the machine insisted on babbling nonsense until I muted the thing. 

This cold has made it hard for me to focus. And the machine’s ridiculous whimpering is distracting me from gathering analysis. Thankfully the results proved my theory correct. I have successfully crippled the A.I. from becoming a problem. I foresee that Subject 1707 will be very obedient within the next three hundred years if it wishes to continue to function.

12:30 P.M.  
Lunch break. Took cold medication to ease the coughing.

12:37 P.M.  
Ran into a few colleagues that wished to discuss the Marathon’s dish array on the G4-Sunbathing Landing Station. Apparently they want to find a way to enhance the signal output in hopes of communicating with Earth faster than the estimated ninety-two years it would take to transfer data from Tau Ceti to the Sol System. I politely declined to humor them. I see no point in wanting to communicate to this decaying rot of a civilization.

2:08 P.M.  
Work was interrupted again when I received a call from a MIDA agent. A ridiculous breach in protocol. They know that the ONI spies are still within the Clovis Bray network. I shut the fool up as quickly as I could and arranged a meeting place. Subject 1707 cleaned up my trail afterwards. At least it is learning to be useful with redirecting subterfuge work. Still have a headache.

4:15 P.M.  
Left the Dust Palace to meet with the MIDA agent. After making sure we weren’t followed, I allowed the idiot to speak. Apparently the blueprints from that doctor on Independent Asteroid Government of Icarus were legit. MIDA has found some useful test subjects to experiment on. Should all go well, we’ll have our first victim executed tonight. The UESC will soon learn how helpless it is compared to the might of the entire Martian race.

4:47 P.M.  
Returned to the office. Head pounding and I am out of tissues again. Took more medication to lessen the pain. Made progress with the titanium laced gold alloy. If the metal proves to be stable it will open doors on reinforcing the body structures of ships, aircrafts, and land vehicles. Getting the legal documentation on it is a chore however. I fear that when it is approved, the formula will never leave Martian soil.

6:00 P.M.  
Received invitation to dine with the future Captain of the Marathon as well as President Clovis Bray. I accepted of course. Took more medication so that my cold would not be noticeable. The meal will be lavish in price as well as a waste of food. My dining companions will be just as loathsome. The last few meals I’ve been to, they insisted on speaking loudly and boasted constantly on their future successes. Needless to say I would rather be starving on the streets but I must maintain my image as their obedient dog.

7:08 P.M.  
Returned from the meeting/dinner. It ran longer than anticipated so I’ll have to work on Subject 1707’s upgrades later. The computer is strangely quiet. Not that I’m complaining, my head can’t stand any more inane chatter. But most of its processing power is going to programs that run outside of the Dust Palace’s vicinity. Is it interacting with that woman again? I really need to review the hours of surveillance footage. But not now. I’ll add this data of Subject 1707’s actions to the accumulating pile until I have more time. First, I need more cough drops if I hope to get any more work done.

7:35 P.M.  
As requested by Bray during dinner, I recovered old reports on the control interface problems humanity encountered when they developed the so called ‘Deadly Brains’ in the 2030’s. If Bray is not careful, Dissociative Exomind Rejection could occur in his newest project, just as it occurred in the Deadly Brains. If Clovis Bray really wishes to continue with the Exo program, he’ll need to review these reports himself. Not that I care really. I have my own way of living forever.

8:15 P.M.  
Received text that MIDA is starting its strike. Shame the first victim will be a child. None the less the child is all but asking for it since they keep sneaking away from their father’s protection. Headache is coming back. Took cold medicine with some coffee. Hopefully the caffeine will aide my focus.

8:45 P.M.  
Hit a wall. No progress. Head pounding. Cough is getting worse.

9:00 P.M.  
Decided to go home. Tired. Just tired.

[End Entry B. Strauss]

 

*  
*  
*

 

Cayde wasn’t sure what the hell was happening. The shooter in the alleyway looked like an Earthborn UESC soldier. But he was gunning down Cayde, Jason, and Clovis Bray Junior. Did Clovis Bray Senior piss off the UESC government? Or was this just a personal grudge? Cayde didn’t have much time to ponder these questions as he lay prone on the ground. He watched in horror as the shooter aimed his gun at the frozen boy. “Target acquired.” The soldier stated in a dull monotone voice before pulling the trigger.

BANG!!!

The next few seconds passed like a lagging holovideo that had three glitched endings. Cayde watched in horror as the first born son of the most powerful man on the planet be shot, a macabre of blood, shattered bone, and brain escaping from the back of the boy’s head. …It was an image that disturbed Cayde in a deeply personal way because all he could see was his little Ace standing there in the boy’s place. And it was Ace getting shot instead. But then…

“Target acquired.”

BANG!!!

Suddenly everything was warped, as if time was running backwards only to go forwards after a certain point. Clovis Bray Junior was alive and standing still like a frightened deer. The figure had just fired his gun. And Jason… Jason was now in front of the boy, shoving him backwards just in time to save him. But… the bullet now hit Jason and he was the one to fall dead on the city’s sidewalk. The Spacer blinked in surprise only to find his vision warping around him again. Time going backwards and then forwards. If this really was a horror holovideo, Cayde didn’t want to watch it anymore.

“Target acquired.”

BANG!!!

This time Jason reacted differently. The smaller man remained laying down on the ground but he raised his legs and delivered a kick that looked extremely painful to Clovis Bray Junior’s knees. The boy fell down with a harsh cry and the bullet whizzed innocently over his head.

Jason didn’t waste time afterwards. The small man was up and charging like a bull at the shooter. Jason may not have a lot of mass on his frame but he did have the scrappy determination of a surviving street rat. Cayde winced as he saw fingernails, teeth, and kicks to the crotch come into play as Jason kept the shooter distracted.

Cayde knew that Jason couldn’t hope to keep the shooter occupied for long, so he leapt to his feet as well. But his attention went to the child instead. Images of the boy (so much like his little Ace) getting shot in the head would not leave Cayde’s brain and he knew that the horrific memory would forever be imprinted within him.

Grabbing the still frozen boy by the wrist Cayde yelled “Don’t just stand there you idiot! Run!” Not caring if he wasn’t being gentle, Cayde half dragged and half carried Clovis Bray Junior across the city street and seek shelter among the buildings on the other side.

Thankfully it didn’t take Cayde long to recognize one of the buildings he was running alongside, a massive general merchandise store for various goods. The Spacer had often shipped supplies from Earth and Venus to this particular building which gave him good knowledge on the layout of the ground floor.

Giving Junior a sharp tug, Cayde bolted into the main entrance of the store, darted past the surprised cashiers, and made a beeline through the aisles that carried heavy machinery. As they passed the refrigerators and washing machines a loud, “Bang!” echoed throughout the large building. Cayde winced at the sound. Apparently the shooter had managed to shake off Jason. Hopefully the small man was still alive.

Sadly the Spacer couldn’t worry about Jason right now. Pandemonium reigned. Customers surged through the aisles and flocked to the nearest fire exits to escape the shooter. Cayde took advantage of this distraction to duck through two swinging doors that separated the store from its massive warehouse. Confused workers and fellow Spacers that were unloading their wares called out to Cayde but he didn’t acknowledge them. Instead he continued to drag the poor boy around the warehouse until Cayde saw a familiar exit. Giving a final push of speed, he slammed the door open and shoved the boy back out into the cool night air.

They were in a dark alley but that was okay. Cayde has walked this particular street many times in his trade. With a grin, he darted southwards. Junior panted harshly beside him but still managed to keep up with his long strides. After passing a few buildings Cayde darted left. His end goal was a small UESC embassy that was stationed on the edge of Freehold. The Spacer knew that there wouldn’t be many soldiers there, one or two at most. The embassy stood more as an oppressive symbol to the Martian people than an actual military compound. But Cayde needed reinforcements and the embassy was out of the way of civilian casualties.

They soon came to wire fence that signaled the border of the embassy. Cayde turned around and listened carefully. He couldn’t hear any gunfire, but that didn’t mean that the shooter was closing in. He quickly turned to Clovis Bray Junior and picked the boy up. “Alright kid. Climb up there!”

The child yelped, but clung to the wired fence like a trooper. “Go on kid!” Cayde encouraged. “The UESC embassy is right over that fence.”

There was an awkward flailing of limbs. Apparently the boy had never climbed a wire fence before. Thankfully he did manage to get on the other side safely. Cayde gave the boy a thumbs up before he too began to scale the fence.

A familiar clicking sound alerted Cayde that the shooter had found his prey just as the long limbed man had cleared the halfway point of the fence. He glanced worriedly downwards and frowned when he saw that the boy was distracted. “Kid! Run!”

Brow furrowed, the boy studied the area around him. “Can mist form in an artificial environment?” he asked curiously.

Mist? In his haste to clamber down the fence to reach the boy, Cayde took a chance to look down. Much to his surprise, there was a dark murky layer of fog rolling through the concrete ground. But that was the least of the Spacer's problems. No. He was more concerned over the shooter and that strange humming noise that was getting louder and louder, almost as if someone had turned on a generator and it was starting to overheat.

Cayde shuddered. Goosebumps formed on his arms and he felt his hair stand on end. There was an electrical discharge felt throughout the air as if lightning was about to strike. And suddenly…

“GET DOWN!”

BANG!!!

A hand snagged Cayde’s left foot and pulled. With a yelp the Spacer fell from the fence, slammed into the kid, and piled onto the ground in a confused bundle of limbs. The unmistakable whistle of a flying bullet went over their heads. Cayde glanced about in panic, only to find Jason Revenant crouching over them with a protective hand still grasping Cayde’s ankle. “You know…” The dark skinned man whispered grumpily. “You guys are not helping my headache at all.”

“Where the hell did you come from?” Cayde asked incredulously. There was no way the smaller man beat them to this place. It was almost as if Jason had appeared out of thin air.

“Took a short cut. Just stay down!” Jason grabbed Clovis Bray Junior as the boy tried to get up and yanked the kid back to the dirt. “We just need to be patient.”

“Patient for what?” Cayde was starting to get worried. The fog was leaving just as quickly as it came. In less than a minute, they’ll all be exposed to the shooter.

“HALT! UESC SECURITY!!!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“There we go.” Jason whispered in relief. “The good guys are here.” With a tired groan the small botanist let himself flop bonelessly onto the ground.

“Now can I get up?” asked Junior.

“Sure Indiana, just make sure UESC has chased the bad guy away first. I’m not saving you from another bullet to the head again.” Jason grumbled while massaging his left eye.

“Indiana?”

“What? Oh man. Don’t tell me no one has shown you the Indiana Jones movies.” Cayde grumbled as he slowly stood up and looked around. Sure enough the arrival of the UESC trooper had spooked the shooter into hiding. It didn’t mean that they were completely safe, but at least they now had back up.

“What does a movie have to do with me?” The boy slowly got up alongside Cayde, his huge eyes peering around the darkness with undisguised fear.

“Well I’m not calling you Junior, kid.” Jason muttered tiredly. He remained laying on the ground obviously too tired to get up. “So accept that you’re now named after the dog.”

The look that Clovis Bray Junior gave Jason was one for the history books. It certainly made Cayde laugh. Unfortunately his laugh drew extra attention.

“Halt! You’re trespassing on UESC territory! Identify yourselves, now!”

Cayde blinked when he finally recognized the harsh military voice. “Muller?” he laughed in relief. “Volker Von Muller! I never thought I’d be so happy to see your bald ass head. What are you doing way out here? Isn’t this position grunt work?”

“Hands up!” snapped Muller. The Captain shined a light at Cayde’s face and scowled at what he saw. “Cayden A Sé” sighed Muller as he holstered his gun. “Son of a bitch, you better be grateful I got reassigned here after that riot on the Marathon. Anyone else would have shot your stupid ass. How many times have I told you not to smuggle your crap into UESC buildings?”

“Aww! But you guys love my stuff!” crooned Cayde dramatically. “And guess what, I brought you the best today!” With a flourish, Cayde dragged poor Clovis Bray Junior into the light.

The flashlight jerked and fell from numb fingers as the Captain registered just who was standing before him. “What the hell?” Muller shook his head. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Language!” called Jason who was still lying on the ground.

“Fuck you Revenant! Don’t think I don’t see you there, I’ll deal with you later.” promised Muller. The Captain turned back to Cayde. “Why the hell is the kid here? Where’s his bodyguard? What the hell is going on? And don’t tell me it is nothing! I heard a gunshot!”

“It’s my fault.” whispered a small voice. All three men turned to look at the young boy before them. Clovis Bray Junior’s shoulders where hunched inwards, his face was scrunched up in pain and his body shuddered in suppressed sobs. The boy had reached his breaking point and the stress of the situation caught up with him.

“I wanted to go out and party, like the other guys do.” Clovis Bray Junior admitted in shuttering gasps. “I tricked my bodyguard into investigating a bogus threat and I ran away. These guys found me and saved me from that shooter.”

Cayde laid a supporting hand on the boy’s shoulder. No child should go through that. Hell it made him almost physically ill to think of Ace suffering such a situation. Cayde glanced upwards at Muller. “I didn’t get a good look at the guy. But he was big. Earthborn big. And fast. Kept following us throughout the streets and buildings and he wasn’t afraid to shoot in a public area. Hopefully that Tyke guy that Jason called would have more information or even more reinforcements to help us out.”

“Tyke?” asked Muller.

“Tycho.” Grumbled Jason. The small man was slowly pulling himself off the ground. He still massaged his left eye from time to time, but he at least looked a bit better from the wasted state he was in at the bar. “I called Tycho for backup. But Face McShooty destroyed my Tacpad.” Jason held up his left arm to show the shattered screen and damaged casing of the once former Tacpad. “Boom. Smash. Yay.” He muttered dryly.

“Right…” Muller peered into the darkness around them. But the shooter remained invisible. “Get into the base. I need to make a few calls.”

With a quiet huff of agreement, Cayde kept his hand on Junior’s shoulder to gently steer the boy towards the UESC building. Jason stayed with Muller for a minute before giving the Captain a respectful nod. Then he turned and followed Cayde and the kid. Muller activated his communicator and began talking to his superiors while he patrolled around the fence like an overprotective bulldog. 

Cayde kept quiet for a few minutes to allow the group some distance from the Captain before he murmured, “You said again.”

“What?” asked Jason tiredly.

“You said, I’m not saving you from another bullet to the head again.” Cayde repeated tonelessly. Images of Junior being shot in the head, images of Jason getting shot in the boy’s stead, and then reality happening. Junior falling down because Jason kicked him at such an awkward angle. “You also took a shortcut to get here. I was a street rat too once. I know all the short cuts. There was no way you got here sooner than us.”

“Do we really need to do this now?”

“Depends… Are you going to tell your brother about this?” Cayde was being harsh and he knew it. But this series of strange events was too crazy to let go.

“Just… Stop.” Jason was starting to rub his left eye again. “I can’t see the next patterns to know what’s happening next. I don’t like this…”

Cayde gave the smaller man a sharp glare. “What are you talking about?”

“Well…” Jason sighed as he looked off into the distance. “What if our friendly neighborhood shooter decided to use the cover of darkness to circle around the embassy and is now waiting for us in front of the building’s doors?”

Clovis Bray Junior came to a halt. The frightened boy stared at Jason in disbelief. “Please tell me you’re joking!”

“Shit…” Cayde studied the shadows before the entrance. Sure enough, just as Jason predicted, a human figure was prowling around the area. “Kid… Get back to Muller. We’ll hold him off.”

“Wha? But!” Junior clung to Cayde’s arm. His mouth opening and closing like a fish. Cayde firmly pushed the boy away from his body.

“Go! Kid!”

With a whimper the young man ran back towards Muller. Jason and Cayde stood side by side as the shooter approached. “So… Got any more time traveling tricks to save our asses?” Cayde asked quietly.

“You’re not supposed to know about that. Theo’s gonna kill me.” Jason muttered grimly.

“Not if we die to this asshole first.” Cayde replied cheerfully.

That cheer died out quickly as the shooter once again raised his weapon. Cayde didn’t have much of night vision, but he could see that the scout rifle could do some serious damage. Both he and Jason tensed as the shooter took aim. Silence filled the air and Cayde couldn’t help but feel as if he was in a Mexican Standoff except he and Jason didn’t have any guns.

Just as the quiet became too much and the lone Spacer feared that the tension was going to break into a horribly bloody moment, something new happened.

HONK! HONK!

In less than a blink of an eye the shooter was gone and in his place was a trail of red dust. It happened so fast, Cayde could barely see it. But he certainly got a good view of the aftermath. A garbage truck… A simple ordinary garbage truck had barreled down the quiet street way, rammed into the shooter and slowed to a stop at the UESC embassy. For a moment nobody moved. The only sound that could be heard was the hiss of steam rising from the damaged hood of the truck. And then, a voice called out into the wind.

“Brother! Are you okay?”

“Cal…” The agonized whisper came unbidden from Jason’s throat before the small man was running madly at the garbage truck. “CAL!!! Are you alright?”

“We’re fine! It’s you I’m worried about!”

Cayde couldn’t help but snort in amusement at the younger brother’s reply. The Spacer also took off running towards the parked vehicle. As he neared the machine, he could see that Calvin Revenant was indeed inside the truck with two other women. Looks like Tycho came through with reinforcements after all.

A loud thunk was heard as Calvin managed to slam the garbage truck’s door open and bolted out onto the concrete. In less than a second the brothers were united in pile of hugs, yells, and strangled curses. Cayde watched with a smile. As odd as those two boys were, you couldn’t deny that they belonged at each other’s sides. 

The Spacer looked up at the garbage truck to see that one of the girls had climbed down as well. A small, spiky haired, Asian marched with confidence past Cayde and the Revenant brothers. Cayde was no expert, but considering the last few conversations he’s had with Jason, this woman must be the partner that Calvin works with. The incredibly scary but incredibly brilliant Konoko.

Cayde watched as she sauntered over to check on Clovis Bray Junior. The kid was still clinging to Muller. But it was obvious to see that the boy had some good taste considering the way he was ogling the girl’s body. Cayde left it alone. He could smell the military that reeked off of that woman and wanted no part in it. 

Instead he focused on the last girl in the truck. Unlike the other two, she was still sitting in the driver’s seat. Her eyes were unfocused and there was a slight tremble to her frame. Cayde closed his eyes and sighed as he got a good look at her. Shit… An Earthborn civilian. Probably the first time she’s ever seen anyone die. And of course she gets to experience that on Mars. The press will definitely have a field day with that one.

Keeping his voice low and gentle, Cayde called out to her. “Hey there! You just saved an innocent kid from getting shot. Nice driving!”

Her fingers spasmed around the steering wheel but she was coherent enough to look at him. “What?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“I’m saying you did good. Self defense. No one could fault you for that. You just saved lives today driving like that.” Cayde continued in his best friendly voice. He hoped he was getting to her. Guilt and self hatred were common emotions to feel after killing a person. Cayde could only hope she wouldn’t fall too deeply into that kind of depression.

“But… I… I wasn’t driving…” She murmured dazedly. Her eyes turned away then, apparently distracted by something only her mind could see. 

Cayde allowed himself to wince. Her hands were still on the steering wheel, it was obvious who was driving the truck. The Spacer sighed quietly. The poor girl was going to need help and he didn’t really trust Shrinks. “Alright. That’s okay too. You wanna come out? I bet it’s a lot nicer out here than in that stinky smashed up garbage truck.”

She made a small sound of agreement. Cayde couldn’t help but smile a little in triumph over that, and eagerly reached out to the driver’s door to help her out. His good mood was cut short however when a loud bang was heard at the hood of the truck. Cayde turned swiftly and was horrified at the sight of a bloody mangled hand.

“Son of a bitch!” Cayde jumped back in fear as the shooter pulled himself upwards, using the truck as leverage. There was an awful lot of blood going everywhere. Clearly getting rammed by a garbage truck at a high speed did a number on the human body. Quite frankly, Cayde didn’t know how this shooter guy could still be alive but he wasn’t one to ask questions. Especially since the shooter still had a handgun on him and was aiming at the group.

“Durandal!” shrieked the girl in the truck. A deep terrifying roar answered her call. For a moment Cayde thought she had somehow summoned a demon from the depths of hell. But then the truck lurched forward at full speed and the shooter was once again rammed by the front hood. Cayde watched in horror as the shooter’s body ragdolled through the air and crumpled to the ground next to the embassy.

“Shit…” Cayde hissed at the sight. “Holy shit…”

“You okay?”

Cayde whirled around but relaxed when he saw that the Revenant brothers as well as the rest of the group were now behind him. Judging from their faces, everyone in the group was just as disturbed as he was by that horrific sight. “Yeah… Just surprised. I thought that guy was dead the first time he got smashed.”

“Can’t kill something that’s already dead.” Jason remarked grimly.

Cayde turned in confusion. What the hell did Jason mean by that?

Muller suddenly pulled out his gun and aimed it at the embassy. “Fuck! What the hell is going on here?”

Staggering slowly to his feet the shooter once again stood tall, like a zombie from the horror movies. Cayde grimaced when he saw the blood stained clothing, the ripped open skin and muscles. But the most gruesome image was the shining steel that glittered on the shooter’s bones. Suddenly those dull grey eyes made much more sense.

“He’s not human!”

With a curse Konoko grabbed Clovis Bray Junior and began to run to the garbage truck. “Come on!” She yelled to the rest of the group.

“Wait! What are we doing?” asked Calvin as he and his brother quickly followed her.

“If we can’t kill him, we outrun him!” Konoko raced to the truck’s passenger door and yanked it open. “Get inside and put on your seatbelt sir! We’re going to the Dust Palace.” she addressed the boy.

“There’s no way we’re all going to fit in that tiny cab.” Muller grumbled as he approached the truck.

“Well, it’s a good thing there is also the back end!” Jason called out cheerfully.

Muller gagged at the smell. “You can’t be serious?”

“Uh… Guys? The shooter has found his gun.” Cayde called out helpfully.

Jason grabbed his little brother and jumped into the back of the truck. “Into the garbage chute flyboy!” The elder brother called out.

Cayde, not needing to be told twice, quickly followed along with a groaning Muller. The Captain was trying desperately to hold his nose. Konoko clambered into the passenger seat at the front next to Clovis Bray Junior. “Get us out of here!” She called out to the still terrified Earthborn driver.

The garbage truck once again roared into life. The vehicle turned around sharply and sped away from the embassy. Cayde could hear the faint ‘bangs’ of a handgun going off. But none of the bullets pierced the truck’s walls.

With any luck, they’ll get to the Dust Palace safe and sound.


	19. Linus and Lucy

*  
*  
*

“They tried to take the life of my son!”

The roar of President Clovis Bray could be heard all throughout the Dust Palace. The building itself was in lockdown. Military and Security marched up and down the hallways. Cameras and sensors hummed more violently than a disturbed hive of bees. The very air of the skyscraper was filled with fear and anger.

And sitting the heart of it all, were the survivors of the late night shooting. Some of them still smelled horribly of garbage. They stood in a more private room within the Overwatch. Charlemagne’s Vault could be seen against the back wall. The rooftops were still vibrating due to the transport ships being docked and secured at the Cortex.

“He looked Earthborn.” volunteered Calvin Revenant.

“Military trained. Could be UESC.” mused Konoko.

“There’s no proof!” snarled Captain Volker Von Muller.

“ENOUGH!!!”

Eddings flinched in the back of the room. Clovis Bray’s yelling was not helping her nerves. Neither were the bright lights or the hostile attitude that the residents were displaying. Shortly after Durandal drove the garbage truck within the building’s parking lot, she had been dragged about the skyscraper by Security. Questioned by the military, have her precious knickknacks she found in the dump confiscated, and be poked by the paramedics.

Quite frankly Eddings just wanted to crawl back to her apartment and sleep for a year.

“Our analysis from the city’s security cameras remains inconclusive on the shooter’s identity.” Leela announced to the whole room. Lights flickered through the terminals and holograms appeared before the quarrelling humans. The shooter’s arms, shoulders, and head were highlighted throughout the many pictures and were pointed out with emphasized enhancement.

“From what we can observe from the clothing and weaponry is that it was obtained from a private military corporation known as the Misriah Armory.” Tycho’s voice echoed over the P.A. system. “The Misriah Armory’s main headquarters are located on Mars. The company is currently run by the Vickers family at the present and they are willing to sell their weapons to the civilian market if the price is right.”

“The Misriah Company.” Cayden A Sé mused thoughtfully. “I’ve had to make deliveries for them before. Their main headquarters are at Mars’ equator. Angry bunch. Never got over the massacre. Even named themselves after it.”

An angry snort from Muller. “A Martian company that is against the UESC? Why am I not surprised?”

The paramedics had given Eddings a blanket after they were done prodding her for injuries. It was debatable on what color the blanket was. Orange? No. It was too bleached to be such a vibrant color. More like a peach with a hint of pink. Eddings rubbed the material between her fingers thoughtfully. The blanket was coarse and smelled dusty. No doubt that it had been subjugated Mars’ finer rust filled environment.

Still Eddings kept it on. The paramedics insisted that she wear the thing after experiencing the trauma of being shot at. So she wore it. The girl wasn’t really sure that she was in shock but she kept her mouth shut. There was plenty yelling going on within the Dust Palace. Last thing anyone needed was one more voice to add to the chaos.

“Very well.” Clovis Bray steepled his fingers together. “Leela I want you to shadow the Security Team that investigates the Misriah Armory. Get inside that company’s systems. I don’t care if it is illegal! Hack their computers and download everything that they are doing.”

“Right away sir.” Leela’s normally calm and peaceful voice was now harried. The stress of the environment was affecting the A.I.s as well. Eddings reached up and laid a few fingertips on the earpiece that sat on her right earlobe. The one thing those bastards weren’t able to confiscate, her connection to Durandal.

The A.I. was quiet throughout the entire drive back to the Dust Palace as well as when the group was dragged up the skyscraper’s floors. But the radio was not completely dead. Instead there was a subtle humming, a constant pulse of white noise that one would usually associate with an air conditioner or a heater. The low thrum soothed the girl and helped her relax far more than the blanket did.

“And Tycho! Get in touch with Forensic Scientists that are working on this case. I want no stone unturned! No data left uninvestigated!” President Clovis Bray glowered over everyone in the room. In a softer but more deadly voice, he whispered. “They almost took the life of my son!”

Clovis Bray Junior in question was sitting away from the rest of the group. Surrounded by doctors and paramedics, the boy looked overwhelmed by the close examination. The President marched forward towards his son causing the medics to part like a sea. Despite the worry and fuss, the boy was uninjured. A few scrapes here and there from climbing the fence and falling to the ground. Otherwise Junior was perfectly fine.

The President scooped up one of those ugly blankets and wrapped it around his boy. Then with a solemn air, he escorted his son out of the room. Just as they were exiting the doors, the President turned around. “You all have my gratitude for saving my son.” It was odd to see such a huge man speak so softly. But everyone could feel the gravity of those words. “I would like to speak with you more in an hour. Please meet with me on floor thirty five.”

The group nodded in unison. After the President left with his son, Cayde clapped his hands together enthusiastically. “Whelp! Let’s get this party started! I know for a fact that floor thirty five has a lot of vending machines to tide us over.”

The promise of food seemed to perk everyone up. Leaving the disgruntled medics behind, the group started the long march out the door and down the stairs. Eddings followed behind, too out of it to really take notice of her surroundings.

“All I’m saying is, we go down floor twenty seven, down floor twenty six, and then suddenly we’re on floor thirty six!” Jason waved his hand wildly at his younger brother. Calvin nodded along halfheartedly. It was clear that the tired Security Officer was paying little attention to his elder brother other than to steer the mentioned sibling along the way.

“And that’s not even the worst part!” Jason continued to rant. “If you go near the elevators, the next level is labeled floor twenty three! How confusing is that?”

“Revenant! If you don’t shut up right now…” grumbled Muller. The Captain was massaging his left shoulder with a grimace. Riding in the back of a garbage truck had not sat well with the man and he was now sporting bruises to prove it.

Jason whirled around to glare at Muller. Eddings could see that the botanist was exhausted. Bloodshot eyes, deep shadows that seemed permanently engraved on his face, the small man looked haggard. Eddings wondered why he wasn’t given a blanket. Jason appeared to need one far more than she did. A couple of pillows too.

“We’re here.” Konoko announced. The young woman leaned against the doorway as she looked out over the large waiting room. Despite the fact that this floor was actually below the Martian surface, the area was still huge with multiple sweeping stairways leading up and down the floors in a rectangular shape. In one corner a private receptionist office sat complete with glass windows, humming computers, and cozy looking rolling chairs. But no one seemed willing to breach etiquette and invade the tiny room to collect the chairs for their comfort.

Eddings had enough awareness still left within her to take notice of the elevators positioned along one wall. She was certainly not using those tonight! With a grimace she sat down at one of the many benches that aligned the walls. Everything within her entire being was just done with the night. Thankfully Durandal kept on humming in her ear. The soothing rhythm was putting her to sleep even in the uncomfortable environment. 

“Ramen?” A box of noodles from the vending machines was pushed under her nose. Eddings blearily looked upwards to see Cayde’s smiling face. “Granted. It’s spicy. But that’s how you know that the ramen is good!”

“No. I’m fine. Thank you.” Eddings murmured tiredly.

Cayde shrugged cheerfully. “Suit yourself!” The man swung a leg over the bench and sat down with a bounce. With an appreciative “Mmm!” the man dug into the noodles with gusto. Eddings watched him in amusement. Never in her life had she seen anyone eat something so quickly. But then again… Eddings squinted at the box. Was that an Ishtar Collective logo on the ramen box?

The girl blinked slowly and turned back to the vending machines. Didn’t Clovis Bray and the Ishtar Collective hate each other? The girl made a small grunt and decided to ignore the strange phenomenon. Apparently on Mars food was food, even if it came from your enemies.

Quiet chatter filled the waiting room as the group settled down with their snacks. Eddings dozed throughout most of it. Barely paying much attention to Cayde’s good natured slurping, Muller’s outraged squawks, Calvin’s quiet attempts at peace, and the rambunctious teasing that came from Konoko and Jason. Apparently those two were dangerous together. Eddings grinned sleepily. A strange feeling was forming within her chest. Something she hasn’t felt since she was eleven years old. Oddly enough despite the noise of the group and the stress of what happened earlier that night, the girl felt content.

Almost as if she was home in Alaska…

The humming within her ear suddenly cut short. Robbed of its soothing presence, Eddings shot up quickly. Her rapid movements alerted the rest of the group. With lightning like speed, Calvin, Konoko, and Muller stood up and drew their guns. A tense air filled the once peaceful room. An elevator dinged and all guns were immediately aimed at its doors.

But when a coughing Bernhard Strauss exits out of the elevator, the group calms down slightly and lower their weapons. With watery eyes the Computer Scientist glares at them. Eddings shifts back into her seat uncomfortably when Strauss’ glare lingers on her longer than the others. But then another coughing fit racks the man. “Where is Bray?” rasps the scientist.

“Upstairs.” Cayde responded bluntly. “With his kid. Best to wait down here until he’s done.”

But Bernhard Strauss didn’t seem to understand family issues or be aware of common human decency. With a haughty sneer, that was ruined by runny nose, the man stalked through the room and made his way up the stairs. A long quiet silence fell over the floor after his departure.

“With all due respect Durandal, that guy is a dick.”

It took everyone a minute to realize just who it was that said that last sentence.

Jason completely lost it. Howling in laughter with tears in his eyes, the smaller man shouted. “Oh man! Alice! This has to be the first time I’ve ever heard you swear! We really must be in Wonderland!”

“Miss Eddings!” Calvin looked at the girl with proper scandalized shock.

Cayde didn’t bother to say anything, he was too busy laughing. Muller shook his head by the vending machines but he was also smirking as well. Konoko smiled from her post by the door. For once the young woman actually looked relaxed.

Eddings shrank a little from her spot on the bench. Unused to the attention, she couldn’t help but blush. But the best part was the steady rhythm of static that blasted into her ear. She didn’t need to be told twice that Durandal was laughing.

Jason wandered over and plopped himself down on the same bench with Eddings and Cayde. “Hey! Is Durpy there with you?” The smaller man asked while tapping his own ear in emphasis.

“Sure.” Eddings held the little earpiece out.

With a manic like grin Jason took the device and practically shouted into it. “Hey Durp-face! Thanks for getting my brother to save my sorry ass! You’re the best!”

Konoko frowned as Jason returned the earpiece back to Eddings. “How did you know that the A.I. was responsible for helping you?” she asked curiously.

Before Jason could respond, someone cleared their throat at the top of the stairway. President Clovis Bray stood at the top. The huge man looked exhausted but as he stepped down one could see that there was still plenty of energy within his movements. “Everyone! I would like to meet with you privately one at a time in there.” The President announced solemnly while pointing at the unused receptionist room. He looked them over before adding, “Let’s start with that young lady over there. Miss Eddings?”

Eddings jerked a little. “Sir?”

“Please come with me.” The President marched into the private room and then rolled down the window shades. Eddings swallowed dryly. Well this was it. She illegally stowed away on the Marathon, caused a riot on the said vessel, borrowed a garbage truck, and was the one at the wheel when it ran over a man… twice. This was the moment when she will not only lose her job but possibly the moment when she’ll be denied the chance to ever go back to Earth. Heart in her throat, she walked numbly into the office, fingers digging into the blanket for comfort.

“Have a seat.” The President closed the door behind her for privacy and settled himself against the computer’s desk. Eddings sat down on one of the rolling chairs. Despite it’s cushioning, the girl didn’t feel comforted due to the fact the man was still standing over her. 

“Now I know that it is very late at night. So I’m going to be horribly frank to you my dear. Despite how grateful I am over you saving my son.” Clovis Bray laced his large fingers together. “What do you hope to achieve at my company?”

“Uh… what?” Eddings was horribly confused. Did he know that she was trying to get back to Earth? Did he know that President Kaiba offered her a job there? Was Clovis Bray upset about that of all things?

“Miss Eddings you are incredibly gifted. You self-made Tacpad is proof of it. That is why I allowed you internship at my company in the first place.” The man began to pace the tiny room. Eddings couldn’t help but feel that Clovis Bray was a showman at heart. 

“You show incredible intuition both for the servers within the Dust Palace but also one of our A.I.s onboard the Marathon.” The President continued. With a sharp twist of the heel, he turned and stared down at her. “But despite your gifts, you continue to work in hangar ninety six. Why is this?”

Eddings resisted the urge to squirm in her seat. This was not how she expected the meeting to go. “Um… I do like fixing things Sir. And hangar ninety six does need a lot of work.”

“Really? My men tell me that everything is going to schedule.”

“Have they told you about the doors?” What was wrong with her? Why can’t she keep her big fat mouth shut?

“What about the doors?” There was a slow deadly calm to the President’s voice. It made the hair rise on the back of Eddings’ neck.

“They can’t open Sir.” The girl answered truthfully. “We’ve tried multiple times to open the hangar’s doors so that we can measure where the future trains will come in. But something is blocking the entryway every time.”

“Those doors were once used to usher in NASA shuttles for the first colonists here. Correct?”

“Yes Sir.” She nodded. “They lead outside of Freehold’s environmental dome. We’ve sent men in space suits out there to try and see what the problem is. But due to how low the oxygen tanks get and environmental risks, we haven’t been very successful.”

“Hmmm…” The President tapped the desk thoughtfully. “A problem certainly, but not a dangerous one. As long as the doors remain shut, my men can work within the hangar without fear of exposure to Mars’ ‘lovely’ atmosphere.” 

Clovis Bray snorted at his own sarcasm. “In any case the hangar won’t be finish for a good long time despite having almost a thousand people working on it. Now… As for you… You show an aptitude for creating technology as well as fixing it. Or was that piece of metal in the back of the garbage truck there for art?”

Eddings flushed and look down. How on Earth was she going to explain this? “I wish to build a MADD.” She answered truthfully., but not too truthfully. The MADD was originally for Durandal. So he could see and interact with the world on a much better level.

“We already have MADDs on the Marathon.”

“Yes but they are clunky and often get stuck on the walls.” Eddings replied quickly. Images flashed in her mind. Memories of those weird copper/bronze floating MADDs she saw out in the Martian desert. Those beautiful pyramid shaped MADDs were classified information to be sure, but she could recreate how those machines glided throughout the air with elegance. She could! 

“I wanna make a MADD with superior cameras so that the A.I. can truly see the environment around them, that their weapons will always be on target, for the propulsion system to glide them anywhere within the Marathon and not hit the walls or get stuck in the corners!” Eddings gasped as she ran out of air. Face heating as the girl realized that she was babbling to the point of ranting at the most powerful man on Mars. “I just… wanna build this…” she finished lamely.

A large hand rested on her shoulder. She looked up questionably. “And so you shall.” President Clovis Bray promised her. “In honor of you aiding my son, I will provide the materials and the funding for your little project. Should your MADD truly be superior to our own, the blueprints will be used to update all the MADDs on the Marathon and the profit will be ours.”

Clovis Bray smiled at her stupefied stare. “After all, is it not my motto that we want your grandchildren? Your inventions! The children of your mind! We have a singular understanding of genius, and we appreciate how brilliant minds flourish when they enjoy total freedom. This is where your brilliance, freed of budget constraints and managers, makes the universe dance!”

Eddings smiled a little. She knew this advertisement. Saw it often on the holographic televisions back on the farm. Those words were what inspired her to build her Tacpad and try to get a job at the Clovis Bray facility in the first place. Still… she had to ask. “And if my MADD doesn’t work?”

“Then tell them they aren’t worthy and set them inside a deep dark drawer. But every technology matures and your device (worthy or not) will one day meet another piece of technology from another genius mind and a fierce new machine will be born!” The President clapped his hands eagerly at his own words. “And that is what Clovis Bray is all about, arranging for your grandchildren to prosper!”

The girl sat back. Quite frankly she was bothered about the line of stuffing her creation in a deep dark drawer just because it was not worthy, especially when Clovis Bray himself regarded the technology as children. But then again, Eddings has seen how people treat Durandal. So maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised that machines were considered so… disposable.

Taking a deep breath Eddings reviewed the facts. She wasn’t getting fired but instead offered a job opportunity. A job that offered more money to help her finally leave Mars behind. And the new MADD would help Durandal immensely. “I would love to build and update all the MADDs on the Marathon.” She announced.

“Good!” The massive man rubbed his hands together. “Good! I’ll have everything set up. I’ll still want you to work in hangar ninety six from time to time however. I need someone honest to give me updates on the matter.” He glanced down at her. “Agreed?”

She reached up to shake his hand. “Yes Sir!” His grip was firm and completely engulfed Eddings small fingers. “Thank you Sir!”

“No.” Clovis Bray interrupted her. “Thank you.”

*  
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*

With another handshake the President escorted Eddings out of the tiny room and into a bland empty hallway. Left to her own devices the exhausted girl slumped against the plain colored walls, sat down on the floor, and rearranged her blanket around her shoulders.

“Miss? Are you functional?” Durandal quietly asked in her earpiece.

The auburn haired girl laughed. “Nope! I am so nonfunctional that all of the king’s horses and all of the king’s men can’t put me back together again.”

“What about a sword?”

“Huh?” she blinked in confusion.

“Can a sword put you back together again?”

That brought a sad smile to her lips. “Yeah… An unbreakable sword like yourself? You could piece me back together along with Humpty Dumpty and still have time for tea.”

“I hardly doubt that, considering you will probably drink all of the tea as well as any other hot beverages at your disposal.” The A.I. snipped good naturedly.

“Hey! When you live in the cold of Alaska, you learn the value of a hot drink.” She shook her finger at the camera near the door.

“Mars is undoubtedly much colder than Alaska and you don’t see the residents drinking as much as you do.”

Eddings had to bite her lip hard to keep herself from pointing out that the Martians probably drank far more alcohol then she ever dared to do in her lifetime. Instead she debated “Bah! Those guys don’t go outside long enough to understand the importance of a hot drink.”

“Many would debate that Alaska would be much more hospitable to humanity if they just placed an environmental dome over the landscape.” Durandal pointed out reasonably.

Eddings wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Yeah, but then you miss out on all the good stuff. There’s so much more out there than just the cold.”

“Like what?”

“Like what…” She repeated thoughtfully. She leaned back against the steel wall, the constant pulse of electricity vibrated against her spine. The heat was a nice contrast to the cold tile floors she sat on. Eddings closed her eyes and hummed quietly. How do you explain the wonders of Earth to a person who has never lived there? How do you even find comparisons to help them understand?

“Like…” Eddings started slowly. “Winter is bitterly cold yes and it is also dark too. So dark a polar night can occur in some areas like in Fairbanks or Eagle Summit where the sun just won’t rise at all. The land is in eternal darkness all day long. But then when spring comes and the light touches the land again. Everything becomes beautiful.”

The girl waved her hands awkwardly to emphasize her point. “You never realize how important the light is until it has been gone for so many days. When it finally comes, you can suddenly see everything in color. The pine trees are a deep vibrant green, almost matches your swords really. The forget-me-not flowers are a light blue that compliments the sky and the river perfectly. The Yukon River melts in the warmer temperatures which prompts the all the animals to come back north.”

“Really? What kind of animals?”

Eddings jumped at the new voice. Jason stood by the doors rubbing his head sheepishly. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.” The smaller man apologized. “Old man Bray finished talking with me. Tried to offer me a promotion… Or a new job. I told him that growing plants and getting on the Marathon was fine for me. How about you? Are you all right? He didn’t mess with you did he?”

“No. I’m fine.” She reassured the babbling man. Eddings couldn’t help but worry at the sight before her. Although Jason was standing and she was sitting, the man still seemed small to her. Tired, worn out, the botanist swayed from side to side. Without thinking, Eddings reached out and grabbed Jason by the wrist. “Wha?” the young man yelped as she pulled him down beside her and wrapped half of her blanket around him. Blinking owlishly up at her while cocooned in the hideous peach/orange fuzz, she couldn’t help but smile at him.

“There.” She announced in satisfaction. Ignoring Jason’s continued spluttering, Eddings continued where she left off. “There are a lot of animals that roam free in the Alaskan wilderness. But my favorites are the bears. It’s always funny to watch them play in the river.”

It seemed so easy for her to babble. Nonsense words of a life that was worlds away. Stories about the aurora borealis stretching across the evening sky, how the wolves sound so mournful when they howl throughout the night. How the eagles nest in the mountains during springtime and the incredible sight of salmon leaping out of the Yukon River. Eddings words wove a wistful tale of late night expeditions with her father to observe the moose migration and how her mother would always yell at them for sneaking out.

Time passed and the hallway soon filled with the rest of the group as they finished their own private conversations with Clovis Bray. Oddly enough, none of them seemed eager to interrupt or change the topic. Calvin plopped himself down next to Jason and stole a good portion of the blanket. Konoko leaned exhaustedly against the wall across the group. A quiet faraway look had settled on her features. Apparently the ONI agent was feeling nostalgia for earth as well.

Muller came in next. A funny look crossed his face when he beheld the Revenant brothers sharing a blanket with Eddings. The Captain remained silent however and stalked to the end of the hallway in a brooding manner.

It was only when Cayde came out that Eddings silenced herself. As always the long limbed man was enthusiastically noisy as he exited the secretaries’ room while shaking President Bray’s hand. “Thank you so much for the job offer Mr. Bray! You’ll have no idea how much this opportunity means to me!”

Jason went still beside Eddings. If the girl didn’t know any better, she could have sworn that the smaller man was growling. Cayde didn’t pay them any mind, as he laughed good-naturedly while Clovis Bray patted his shoulder eagerly. “Of course! Of course! Come to me anytime if you require a prospect to settle your debts. There is always work to be had at Clovis Bray!”

With one final hearty laugh, the President turned to address the rest of the group. “I’ll send a security team to escort you safely out of the building. You’ll take this time to rest and recoup. Then… When you are ready… Help me avenge my son. Help yourself to revenge. Make this sniper rue the day he thought to attack us.”

The group nodded as one at the President’s words. The huge man studied them all before turning around to leave. Left to their own devices once more, the group began to wander out of the hallway. Jason immediately marched over to Cayde and hissed angrily at the man in a hushed tone. Cayde in turn glared at Jason, turned his eyes purposely at Calvin, and pointedly looked at Jason again.

Looking as if he swallowed something sour, Jason turned away from Cayde and grabbed his little brother by the hand. It should have been hilarious, the sight of a small man towing a much larger man out of the room. But due to Jason’s haggard appearance and his sudden angry temper, the situation only felt uncomfortable.

Konoko glanced curiously at Cayde. The long limbed man didn’t offer any information however. Instead he just whistled cheerfully as he sauntered away leaving the ONI spy to follow behind him.

Muller stood quietly as he watched Eddings gather herself off the floor and wrap the blanket firmly around her shoulders. “Hey lady.” He called out once she settled herself. “Not that I don’t appreciate your company but… we got to stop meeting like this.”

Eddings turned to look at him in bemusement. “Don’t like virus laden A.I.s, angry Martian mobs, and snipers?” she asked wryly.

“Hah!” Muller shook his head. An awkward moment passed, Muller’s eyebrows drew together as he internally debated with himself before he finally asked, “So… You and the Revenant brothers… You are?”

The girl couldn’t help but blink in puzzlement. “We’re friends.” 

“Right! Friends… That’s good.” Muller nodded his head in relief. “That’s very good. Friends.”

Eddings watched the Captain. Quite frankly the girl was too tired to understand why Muller wanted to know who her friends were. Her apartment, more importantly, her bed was calling her. “I’m gonna go ahead and go home.” She told the Captain while walking out of the hallway.

“Right! Of course! Go home! Rest. Just…” Muller paused in his rambling as Eddings turned to study him once more. “Uh… Coffee? Or dinner? Anytime you want or anywhere you want! I’m not picky!”

Blinking owlishly, it finally dawned on Eddings what Muller was asking her. “Oh! Uh… Sure! Just… Some other time?”

“Yeah! You got it lady! Just say the word!” Muller grinned like a loon at her. A strange sight really, a huge muscled bald man smiling ridiculously at her. But Eddings was still too out of it to really respond to the situation. She just nodded sleepily at him and continued her way out. Muller watched her leave with a dopy grin on his face. Once she was safely out of sight he fist pumped the air in celebration.

Proud and full of himself, the Captain began to marched out of the hallway-

-only to have the automatic door slam in his face.

“GOD DAMNED COMPUTER!!!” 

*  
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*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> *  
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> 
> Thank you all for reading! If anyone wants some soothing white noise to put them to sleep, may I recommend this video?
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DydIK14AvXI

**Author's Note:**

> I shamelessly admit that I have combined Bungie’s Pathways into Darkness, Halo, and Destiny into Marathon’s timeline. Blame the W’rkncacnter. They love messing with time, space, and the multi-universe.


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